At 08:08 PM 3/11/2004, Jeremy Maitin-Shepard wrote:
I don't believe Windows supports directory hard links. I assume though that you were referring to ``junctions.'' AFAIK, ``junctions'' do not keep the directory `alive', in that I don't believe there is any reference counting, nor do they appear as ordinary directories. Thus, they are more like absolute-path symbolic links than hard links, and I would say therefore it makes more sense to have them be supported by a symbolic link facility rather than by the hard link facility.
Here is what the discussion in the Windows Platform SDK docs says:
A junction (also called a soft link) differs from a hard link in that the
storage objects it references are separate directories, and a junction can link directories located on different local volumes on the same computer.
Otherwise, junctions operate identically to hard links.
But I take "Otherwise, junctions operate identically to hard links" with a grain of salt, and would want to confirm such an assertion by testing. --Beman