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include winln to properly create symbolic links #1999

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@nngo

Description

@nngo
  • I was not able to find an open or closed issue matching what I'm seeing

Setup

  • Which version of Git for Windows are you using? Is it 32-bit or 64-bit?
$ git --version --build-options
git version 2.20.1.windows.1                                                                                             
cpu: x86_64                                                                                                               
built from commit: 7c9fbc07db0e2939b36095df45864b8cda19b64f                                                               sizeof-long: 4                                                                                                            
sizeof-size_t: 8
  • Which version of Windows are you running? Vista, 7, 8, 10? Is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

$ cmd.exe /c ver

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.472]
  • What options did you set as part of the installation? Or did you choose the
    defaults?

Using defaults.

  • Any other interesting things about your environment that might be related
    to the issue you're seeing?

No.

Details

  • Which terminal/shell are you running Git from? e.g Bash/CMD/PowerShell/other

Bash

ln -s target-file link-name
or
ln -s target-dir link-name
  • What did you expect to occur after running these commands?

A Windows symbolic link from target file (or target directory) to the link-name specified.

  • What actually happened instead?

A copy of the target was done to the link-name.

Possible solution:
Suggest at least including winln.exe in Git Bash for Windows (this package is available in msys and can be installed using pacman -Su winln when using Git for Windows SDK. The winln command checks that user has SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege to create symbolic link.

FYI: winln currently does not check if Developer Mode is enabled and will abort creating symlink even though user can create symlinks when this is enabled.
See irakhlin/winln#1

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