Re: How to create symlink using Perl? (Unix symlinks vs Windows Junctions)

Windows NTFS supports Junctions which are very similar to Unix symlinks (see also Sysinternals Junction).

Update: unlike Unix symlinks, be aware that Windows junctions are for directories only (see Re^5: How to create symlink using Perl? and Win32::Symlink for more detail).

I've successfully used the CPAN Win32::Symlink module by audreyt (in particular, it's symlink function) to write cross-platform code that used "symlinks" on both Unix and Windows. At the top of the program, I used:

BEGIN {
   if ($^O eq 'MSWin32')
   {
      require Win32::Symlink;
      Win32::Symlink->import();
   }
}
[download]

The rest of the code (using the symlink function) was the same for both platforms.

Comment on Re: How to create symlink using Perl? (Unix symlinks vs Windows Junctions) Select or Download Code

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Re^2: How to create symlink using Perl? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Oct 23, 2011 at 09:26 UTC
By the way, that can be written as `use if $^O eq 'MSWin32', 'Win32::Symlink';` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: How to create symlink using Perl? by reddevil (Initiate) on Oct 23, 2011 at 18:19 UTC
This module is reported to be broken in current versions of activestate perl: `http://code.activestate.com/ppm/Win32-Symlink/` `http://matrix.cpantesters.org/?dist=Win32-Symlink+0.04` Am using activestate Perl version 5.12.3.1204 and windows 7 32bit with NTFS. How to shell out to mklink?	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: How to create symlink using Perl? by Corion (Patriarch) on Oct 23, 2011 at 18:41 UTC
See system.	[reply]
Re^4: How to create symlink using Perl? by reddevil (Initiate) on Oct 23, 2011 at 23:10 UTC
I tried with active perl version 5.8.8 and the Win32::Symlink module got installed. But it created only directory juntion despite passing a file. @Corion Thanks for the suggestion. Now I am able to run the mklink command of windows directly inside in perl script and able to create the desired symbolic links. `my $oldfilename = File::Spec->catfile($oldname); my $newfilename = File::Spec->catfile($newname); if(-f $newfilename){ } else { @args = ("mklink", $newfilename, $oldfilename); system(@args) == 0; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^5: How to create symlink using Perl? by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Oct 24, 2011 at 02:06 UTC
Re^2: How to create symlink using Perl? by freonpsandoz (Beadle) on Oct 08, 2016 at 22:36 UTC
Junctions are symbolic links to directories, not to files. I cannot get Win32::Symlink::symlink to create a symbolic link to a file. It also seems to work only for directories, although I can't find any documentation of this limitation.	[reply]