Re: [PATCH] git-new-workdir: add windows compatibility

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: May 26, 2015, 09:53 UTC
Message-ID: <cbfbf842705637b52cde9c6b61f89a75@www.dscho.org>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqfv6k7zp3.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

Hi,

On 2015-05-26 06:03, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 23 quoted lines

> Daniel Smith <dansmith65@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> When running on Windows in MinGW, creating symbolic links via ln always
>> failed.
>>
>> Using mklink instead of ln is the recommended method of creating links on
>> Windows:
>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18641864/git-bash-shell-fails-to-create-symbolic-links
>>
>> Script now branches on Windows to use mklink. This change should not affect
>> unix systems.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Daniel Smith <dansmith65@gmail.com>
>>
>> Has been tested on Windows 8.1 and OS X Yosemite.
>> ---
> 
> Swap the "Has been tested..." and "Signed-off-by:" lines.
> 
> I'll defer to Windows folks if "mklink" is a sensible thing to use
> or not; I have no first-hand experience with Windows, but only heard
> that links are for admin user only or something like that, so I want
> to hear from people whose judgement on Windows matters I trust.

The biggest problem with `mklink` is that it is only supported on Windows Vista and later, while I really like to keep Windows XP support in Git for Windows.

That is why Karsten Blees' symlink support (emulated via NTFS reparse points) which I just merged into Git for Windows yesterday is so careful about everything.

But git-new-workdir is in `contrib/`, anyway, and not installed in Git for Windows by default, therefore it is less critical: interested parties will have to be a bit knowledgeable in any case.

So I am fine with it!

Ciao, Dscho