Re[2]: Symlinking in win9x is now possible at kernel-level!

[Konstantin Isakov <ikm at online dot ru>]

Monday, May 07, 2001, 11:45:46 PM, you wrote:

KI>> Can't say that the implementation is very clear, but it works,
KI>> symlinks are really followed for *all* programs! The main and quite
KI>> obvious limitation is that the driver I wrote works only in
KI>> Windows'9x (and ME possibly)...

ed> i hate to play devil's advocate, but there's some points you may wish
ed> to consider.

ed> the problem with "native" symlinks is that many native programs don't
ed> expect them, an can be easily confused.

I know. It is the biggest problem. So you will have to think whether
any particular program will be confused or not.

ed>  for example, symlinks can
ed> (possibly) be cycled /foo/bar points to /foo, for example. have you
ed> tried such configuration? how about pressing F3 in explorer and
ed> traversing file system?

It won't die just because there is a limit of the expansion count, so
it will end up traversing somewhere in /foo/bar/bar/bar/bar/bar/bar ;)

ed> on unix, symlink concept is supported by various system calls,
ed> lstat(), for instance. win32 lacks them, so native programs may go
ed> wrong.

The idea is to add similar API to the driver. I can do it.
But of course I can't tell all existing programs that there is now such API :(


ed> maybe you should make this driver to be available only to programs
ed> that specifically state that they are able to handle symlinks?

Unfortunately, it doesn't make much sense then. Just because the only
programs I have that know about symlinks are from cygwin package, but
they don't need any foreign symlinking support ;)

KI>> If you need it, you're welcome to download it from
KI>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/symlink9x

KI>> Although everything is in pre-alpha state, it has been working
KI>> for me nicely for a week or two already.

KI>> Just an announcement, hope I haven't violated any policies ;)

ed> btw, did you test their performance? is your implementation much
ed> faster than cygwin's?

I can only say that I can't notice any slowdown at all.


-- 
Konstantin Isakov



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