Symbolic Links in Windows

[NIXin]

Hi all,

As I understand, Sync now synchronizes symlinks opaquely between Linux systems, which is great.

But this feature works differently in Windows. Windows symlinks are followed and their contents are synchronized instead. I was wondering whether this is a bug?

I have to point out that Junction Points / Mount Points in Windows are different to Symbolic Links. I would presume Symbolic Links would get synchronized across platforms (not the contents), so that in Linux I would also get a Windows link recreated. Of course it would probably not resolve, as it's a different device, but that's not the point - if I want to use Sync for the purpose of backup, then I would like it to sync Windows symlinks too.

For debugging/testing - symlinks can be created from Windows command line with admin privileges as follows (eg. for directories):

mklink /D C:\target D:\sourceDir

Therefore in Linux the symlink should also point to D:\sourceDir, even though in linux that's an invalid path.

This should work also the other way around - at the moment linux symlinks don't get copied to Windows at all.

The only problem I see with (re)creating symlinks in Windows is it requires elevated privileges, but I am sure for users who want to use that feature it won't be a problem (syncing of those could be delayed until the user confirmins the action).

Thanks for a great product!

All the best

[John Peterson]

## Link synchronisation

It's a problem that linked folders are synchronised because

* it can lead to unwanted synchronisation

An option per synced folder would be meaningful because

* some folders should synchronise its links

Without an option it's better to synchronise (rather than not synchronise) because

* it's useful for efficient sharing

[JimH44]

I am managing a software distribution system for free software that is especially helpful for people who work with minority languages (LangTran). Currently we use Wuala.com for our repository. Some people find it a bit complicated to set up, so I'd like to use BTSync for easier setup.

People with a good internet connection can join many Wuala "Groups" and get lots of software installers, while those with a poor or expensive connection can join just a few Groups and get a subset, for the particular kind of work they are doing.

I'd like BTSync to follow Windows links (ie. .lnk files) and deliver what they point to, rather than delivering links that become useless when the user goes to a remote area with no internet.

For example, someone with a very good connection could get a read-only secret for "everything", which would refer to a folder full of .lnk files that point to all the folders in the repository. Someone with a poor connection, however, might want the secret for a folder called "literacy" that contains .lnk files that point to just the software for making literacy materials, the folder for publishing and the folder for general utilities. When either of these users runs BTSync, it should get the folders that these links point to, not just the link files.

In my experiments so far, I find that the Windows .lnk files are copied as they are. The folders that they point to are not delivered to the recipient.

(No doubt this behaviour should be configurable, because people who want to use BTSync for backups will want the link structure to be retained, with the link file being delivered instead of what it points to.)

So my request is for a configurable option about .lnk files and symbolic links in Linux (and Mac?)

Jim

[rdebath]

Following *.LNK files is VERY unlikely to happen.

For now, at least, BTSync will follow real symlinks on Windows though.