Background

When blogging one tries out various scenarios across different platforms.

File System

Symbolic Links

Need

As I was working on compiling time-windows I wanted to have a couple of branches.

One for compilation with Microsoft Visual Studio and another branch for compiling with MinGW ( Minimalist GNU for Windows).

Premise

The code is C and it should be portable.

Having said that, the compiler binary and corresponding options will be slightly different.

Before View

Images

tree

explanation

There are two files, Timemem.c and TimeMem.ico that are currently in our root folder.

We will link to them from our build folder as we try out each new compiler/

Create Link

Script

if not exist TimeMem.c   mklink TimeMem.c ..\..\TimeMem.c

if not exist TimeMem.ico mklink TimeMem.ico ..\..\TimeMem.ico 

Output

Output – Image

After View

Images

tree

dir

Windows Explorer

 

Explanation

1. Tree Command
   • Shows the linked files
2. dir Command
   • Tags the linked files with the <SYMBLINK> flag
3. Windows Explorer
   • Symbolically linked files tagged with .symlink

Summary

Using symbolically linked files via the mklink command one can hopefully keep a single file via, yet expose it using an abstract name.

 

References

1. Microsoft
   • Windows Blogs
     • Yosef Durr
       • Symlinks in Windows 10
         Link