Symlinks support status?

[Dov Feldstern]

Marcin Kasperski wrote:
>> My idea for handling this is for a symlink to be replaced in the
>> working directory by an actual copy of the linked-to
>> file/directory. Then it "looks" the same as long as changes are not
>> made to any of the copies.
> 
> But when they are, we have the problem....

If you mean: "but when the copies *are* changed, we have a problem", 
then I go on to explain how this can be dealt with.

> 
> Plus, do not forget about cases like:
> 
>   mymercurialrepo
>      startups
>         appversion
>         variables.sh --> ../config/variables.sh
>      config
>         variables.sh
>         appversion -> ../startups/appversion
> 
> (well, a bit artificial, but I keep my /etc/ in mercurial and even
> more ugly configs are not that rare)

I don't see what the problem with this is. But now that you mention it, 
there is one situation (maybe that's what you meant) which really *is* a 
problem: cycles formed by the symlinks. E.g.: a/b at ->../a , which expands 
to a/b/b/b/b/... . So yes, we would not be able to do anything about a 
case like this, and we would have to have a mechanism to recognize 
cycles and not even attempt to expand them...

> 
> Also, in cases where symlinks point outside, they are often useless
> when moved to another system. What benefit it would bring if one
> worked really hard to support on Windows this symlink to
> /usr/local/share/icons ;-) ?

Yes, symlinks pointing outside are a different story. I'm trying to 
figure out how we can map the repository to the working directory. 
Anything that's not in the repository is beyond the scope of what I'm 
suggesting.

> 
> 
> On the other hand: what about discussing about specific systems
> instead of 'general case'? Namely - Windows. They do not have
> symlinks, but they have those .LNK files which to some degree
> work as symlink, at least for GUI tools. Maybe it would make
> sense to convert symlinks to .LNKs?
> 

I don't really know anything about .LNK files. From what little I've 
tried to do with them, I don't think that they can help out with this 
(when you open such a file in an editor, you get binary data, not the 
file being linked to), but I would be happy to be proved wrong.

Dov