Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT]: Important change to symbolic link functionali ty

[Corinna Vinschen <cygwin at cygwin dot com>]

On Sun, Feb 25, 2001 at 11:52:40PM -0800, Lothan wrote:
> a deal. An additional problem with .lnk files is that the links could be
> manipulated with a Win32 application (i.e. Explorer) such that the DOS path
> references a different object than the POSIX path. On the one hand, it's
> tempting to say this isn't going to be a big problem and can be handled as a
> simple FAQ entry -- especially considering that I like the idea of using
> .lnk files. On the other hand, how many people actually read the FAQ... and
> who's willing to live with the idea that a link to /bin/rm.exe that was
> changed via Explorer to C:\Cygwin\bin\cp.exe suddenly deleted all my files?
> Perhaps an alternative (if possible) is to add a checksum of the DOS path to
> the POSIX portion of the link? It may not be perfect, but at least that way
> code can tell if the DOS path was changed and a warning issued.

I already told this here. As soon as the link is manipulated in Explorer
Cygwin (and U/WIN) treats the POSIX path as invalid and only uses the
DOS path from then on.

I don't like the idea of a warning, though. The user is already warned
enough when changing the shortcut: A Cygwin (U/WIN) created shortcut has
the R/O bit set. The first try to change the shortcut opens a message box

	Unable to save changes to 'foo.lnk'.

		Access is denied.

If a user then removes the R/O attribute either he knows what he's doing
or he has to live with the consequences.

Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Developer                                mailto:cygwin@cygwin.com
Red Hat, Inc.

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