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Windows Symlinks Test

This repository shows how git symlinks can work in Windows and also with a CentOS guest provisioned by Vagrant.

proof

Requirements

  • I'm running Windows 10 Pro Version 1803 with developer mode enabled
  • An elevated console if you're not in Windows 10 developer mode and running at least version 1709
    • with developer mode enabled I was able to run these tests in a normal console
  • CMD to use MKLINK (it is an internal tool)
    • I still usually use PowerShell and only drop into CMD when I need to
  • git for Windows (I was running v 2.19)
  • set the git config --global core.symlinks true
  • Vagrant SMB synced folders needs PowerShell v3 or greater

Recommendations

  • use git ls-files -s to see if symlinks are preserved. If the mode is 120000 then git recognizes it as a symlink 
    > git ls-files -s
100644 4e768b56d84e02be46b30d93be818972220b8462 0       README.md
120000 7e04551bbc919229e952964ef21a091797111400 0       a/source_link_example.txt
120000 7e04551bbc919229e952964ef21a091797111400 0       a/source_link_example_non_admin.txt
100644 a520b053516e90e9328fb7278f1773b3f23dc006 0       b/content.txt
120000 63d8dbd40c23542e740659a7168a0ce3138ea748 0       directory_link
120000 63d8dbd40c23542e740659a7168a0ce3138ea748 0       directory_link_non_admin
  • when working with another filesystem force line endings to be consistent. It ends up being easier to choose LF always as most Windows IDEs support either LF or CRLF ending but most *NIX applications have limited or no support for CRLF
    • See the .gitattributes file for a demo

Making links in Windows

# (Starting from PowerShell)
cd a
cmd
C:\...\windows-symlinks-test\a>mklink source_link_example_non_admin.txt ..\b\content.txt
symbolic link created for source_link_example_non_admin.txt <<===>> ..\b\content.txt

C:\...\windows-symlinks-test\a>cd ..

C:\...\windows-symlinks-test>ls
README.md  a  b  directory_link

C:\...\windows-symlinks-test>mklink /d directory_link_non_admin b
symbolic link created for directory_link_non_admin <<===>> b

# back to PowerShell
exit

Working with Vagrant

  • I recommend using Hyper-V wherever possible
    • Newer docker features depend on Hyper-V
    • Hyper-V is far more stable than VirtualBox
    • Hyper-V is a jealous piece of crap that demands control over CPU Virtualization functions 😢
    • Warning: The Vagrant Hyper-v provider requires an elevated console to run!
  • I used Vagrant 2.2 for these tests
  • I recommend setting up a low-security local account that you can use to authenticate the SMB share with.
    • If you're security conscious your likely to have a strong password set for your default Windows account - this is a pain to type in on each vagrant up
    • Using a seperate local account for the share allows you to restrict SMB access to just that account and just your dev folder. Useful if there's ever an accidental misconfiguration.
  • Note the option changes to the SMB synced folder in the Vagrantfile
  • To start: vagrant up in this directory
    • If you have VirtualBox or another provider installed you may need to specify which provider you want to use: vagrant up --provider=hyperv
  • The Vagrantfile in this repo run symlink_test.sh which should, as a proof of concept, show symlinks being shared with the guest (see image at top that demonstrates links working).
  • While the Vagrantfile in this repo is only configured for Windows you can define Vagrantfiles that use different providers and synced_folder solutions for different OSs. I strongly recommend doing this if other developers on your team do not use Windows