Problem with tar version 1.29 (in Cygwin 3.6 64 bit) in extracting sym-link files

Problem with tar version 1.29 (in Cygwin 3.6 64 bit) in extracting sym-link files

[vinay Hegde]

Hi Cygwin Team,
In Cygwin 3.6, I am facing an issue while using tar.exe for extracting
.tar.z file.

Issue summary:
When I use 'tar.exe' to extract the .tar.z file, it extracts all files
including symlinks. But symlink file size will be 0KB & it throws
error 'The file cannot be accessed by the system', if I try to open in
any Windows editor like notepad or notepad++

Below are the details:
-   OS: Windows 2019
-   Cygwin version installed: 3.6 (tar version: 1.29)
-   Command used to extract the tar file is: tar -zxvf jre64.tar.Z
-   'ls -l' on the extracted directory shows:
lrwxrwxrwx  1 etbuild Domain Users      8 Jul 10  2017 ControlPanel -> jcontrol
-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   7734 Mar 15  2017 java
-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users 128791 Mar 15  2017 javaws
-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   6264 Mar 15  2017 jcontrol

-     As you can see 'ControlPanel' is a symlink file with 0KB
(8Bytes) size. This file, I cannot open in any Windows editor. It
throws error like ''The file cannot be accessed by the system'

-    However, I can open this file in vi editor or I can 'cat' this.

-    Earlier, I was using Cygwin version 1.7 (tar version: 1.27) & in
that, this issue was not there. Symlink file size was 1KB & I could
open it with any Windows editor.

Please suggest what needs to be done to fix this issue.

Regards
Vinay Hegde

Re: Problem with tar version 1.29 (in Cygwin 3.6 64 bit) in extracting sym-link files

[Eliot Moss]

On 10/2/2020 11:26 AM, vinay Hegde via Cygwin wrote:
> Hi Cygwin Team,
> In Cygwin 3.6, I am facing an issue while using tar.exe for extracting
> .tar.z file.
> 
> Issue summary:
> When I use 'tar.exe' to extract the .tar.z file, it extracts all files
> including symlinks. But symlink file size will be 0KB & it throws
> error 'The file cannot be accessed by the system', if I try to open in
> any Windows editor like notepad or notepad++
> 
> Below are the details:
> -   OS: Windows 2019
> -   Cygwin version installed: 3.6 (tar version: 1.29)
> -   Command used to extract the tar file is: tar -zxvf jre64.tar.Z
> -   'ls -l' on the extracted directory shows:
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 etbuild Domain Users      8 Jul 10  2017 ControlPanel -> jcontrol
> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   7734 Mar 15  2017 java
> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users 128791 Mar 15  2017 javaws
> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   6264 Mar 15  2017 jcontrol
> 
> -     As you can see 'ControlPanel' is a symlink file with 0KB
> (8Bytes) size. This file, I cannot open in any Windows editor. It
> throws error like ''The file cannot be accessed by the system'
> 
> -    However, I can open this file in vi editor or I can 'cat' this.
> 
> -    Earlier, I was using Cygwin version 1.7 (tar version: 1.27) & in
> that, this issue was not there. Symlink file size was 1KB & I could
> open it with any Windows editor.
> 
> Please suggest what needs to be done to fix this issue.

Hi, Vinay - Cygwin can use, and create, a variety of forms of links.  Some of these are understood 
by Windows tools, some not.  I suggest you read in the Cygwin documentation about symlinks and 
decide what kind are best for you.  Then you'll need to set that up, delete the existing link, and 
re-create it.  I personally run with CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native, but as we say in Internet land, YMMV.

Regards - Eliot Moss

Re: Problem with tar version 1.29 (in Cygwin 3.6 64 bit) in extracting sym-link files

[vinay Hegde]

Hi Eliot Moss,
Thank you very much for the quick response & the information.It really helped.
I just set 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & I am now able to open sym-link
file. Both 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks' are working
for me.
But it creates a shortcut(not the regular file). Hope it won't impact
my existing setup.

But both  'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native' (which is default I believe) &
'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:nativestrict' are not working for me. Just to
understand, In what OS environment/File System 'native' will work?

Regards
Vinay Hegde

On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 9:13 PM Eliot Moss <moss@cs.umass.edu> wrote:
>
> On 10/2/2020 11:26 AM, vinay Hegde via Cygwin wrote:
> > Hi Cygwin Team,
> > In Cygwin 3.6, I am facing an issue while using tar.exe for extracting
> > .tar.z file.
> >
> > Issue summary:
> > When I use 'tar.exe' to extract the .tar.z file, it extracts all files
> > including symlinks. But symlink file size will be 0KB & it throws
> > error 'The file cannot be accessed by the system', if I try to open in
> > any Windows editor like notepad or notepad++
> >
> > Below are the details:
> > -   OS: Windows 2019
> > -   Cygwin version installed: 3.6 (tar version: 1.29)
> > -   Command used to extract the tar file is: tar -zxvf jre64.tar.Z
> > -   'ls -l' on the extracted directory shows:
> > lrwxrwxrwx  1 etbuild Domain Users      8 Jul 10  2017 ControlPanel -> jcontrol
> > -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   7734 Mar 15  2017 java
> > -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users 128791 Mar 15  2017 javaws
> > -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   6264 Mar 15  2017 jcontrol
> >
> > -     As you can see 'ControlPanel' is a symlink file with 0KB
> > (8Bytes) size. This file, I cannot open in any Windows editor. It
> > throws error like ''The file cannot be accessed by the system'
> >
> > -    However, I can open this file in vi editor or I can 'cat' this.
> >
> > -    Earlier, I was using Cygwin version 1.7 (tar version: 1.27) & in
> > that, this issue was not there. Symlink file size was 1KB & I could
> > open it with any Windows editor.
> >
> > Please suggest what needs to be done to fix this issue.
>
> Hi, Vinay - Cygwin can use, and create, a variety of forms of links.  Some of these are understood
> by Windows tools, some not.  I suggest you read in the Cygwin documentation about symlinks and
> decide what kind are best for you.  Then you'll need to set that up, delete the existing link, and
> re-create it.  I personally run with CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native, but as we say in Internet land, YMMV.
>
> Regards - Eliot Moss

Re: Problem with tar version 1.29 (in Cygwin 3.6 64 bit) in extracting sym-link files

[Eliot Moss]

On 10/2/2020 12:47 PM, vinay Hegde wrote:
> Hi Eliot Moss,
> Thank you very much for the quick response & the information.It really helped.
> I just set 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & I am now able to open sym-link
> file. Both 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks' are working
> for me.
> But it creates a shortcut(not the regular file). Hope it won't impact
> my existing setup.
> 
> But both  'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native' (which is default I believe) &
> 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:nativestrict' are not working for me. Just to
> understand, In what OS environment/File System 'native' will work?
> 
> Regards
> Vinay Hegde

I run Windows 10 and that works for me.  Of course below, jcontrol should
be an actual file, while ControlPanel will be a symlink to it.  (That
particular name might behave oddly under Windows, because the Control
Panel is a built in thing!)

Not sure what else to say about the different forms.  The lnk form, as
I recall, builds a Cygwin-specific thing that Cygwin understands but
Windows tools will not - they'll just think its a small ordinary file
(its has within it, a few "magic" bytes then the name of the target
file).  You _want_ a short-cut, right?  ControlPanel -> jcontrol _is_
a link.

So I admit I am not fully understanding your post.

Also, on this list, the custom is to bottom-post (or intersperse) replies,
not to top-post.

Regards - EM

> On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 9:13 PM Eliot Moss <moss@cs.umass.edu> wrote:
>>
>> On 10/2/2020 11:26 AM, vinay Hegde via Cygwin wrote:
>>> Hi Cygwin Team,
>>> In Cygwin 3.6, I am facing an issue while using tar.exe for extracting
>>> .tar.z file.
>>>
>>> Issue summary:
>>> When I use 'tar.exe' to extract the .tar.z file, it extracts all files
>>> including symlinks. But symlink file size will be 0KB & it throws
>>> error 'The file cannot be accessed by the system', if I try to open in
>>> any Windows editor like notepad or notepad++
>>>
>>> Below are the details:
>>> -   OS: Windows 2019
>>> -   Cygwin version installed: 3.6 (tar version: 1.29)
>>> -   Command used to extract the tar file is: tar -zxvf jre64.tar.Z
>>> -   'ls -l' on the extracted directory shows:
>>> lrwxrwxrwx  1 etbuild Domain Users      8 Jul 10  2017 ControlPanel -> jcontrol
>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   7734 Mar 15  2017 java
>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users 128791 Mar 15  2017 javaws
>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   6264 Mar 15  2017 jcontrol
>>>
>>> -     As you can see 'ControlPanel' is a symlink file with 0KB
>>> (8Bytes) size. This file, I cannot open in any Windows editor. It
>>> throws error like ''The file cannot be accessed by the system'
>>>
>>> -    However, I can open this file in vi editor or I can 'cat' this.
>>>
>>> -    Earlier, I was using Cygwin version 1.7 (tar version: 1.27) & in
>>> that, this issue was not there. Symlink file size was 1KB & I could
>>> open it with any Windows editor.
>>>
>>> Please suggest what needs to be done to fix this issue.
>>
>> Hi, Vinay - Cygwin can use, and create, a variety of forms of links.  Some of these are understood
>> by Windows tools, some not.  I suggest you read in the Cygwin documentation about symlinks and
>> decide what kind are best for you.  Then you'll need to set that up, delete the existing link, and
>> re-create it.  I personally run with CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native, but as we say in Internet land, YMMV.
>>
>> Regards - Eliot Moss

Re: Problem with tar version 1.29 (in Cygwin 3.6 64 bit) in extracting sym-link files

[Andrey Repin]

Greetings, vinay Hegde!

Please no top-posting in this list.

> On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 9:13 PM Eliot Moss wrote:
>>
>> On 10/2/2020 11:26 AM, vinay Hegde via Cygwin wrote:
>> > Hi Cygwin Team,
>> > In Cygwin 3.6, I am facing an issue while using tar.exe for extracting
>> > .tar.z file.
>> >
>> > Issue summary:
>> > When I use 'tar.exe' to extract the .tar.z file, it extracts all files
>> > including symlinks. But symlink file size will be 0KB & it throws
>> > error 'The file cannot be accessed by the system', if I try to open in
>> > any Windows editor like notepad or notepad++
>> >
>> > Below are the details:
>> > -   OS: Windows 2019
>> > -   Cygwin version installed: 3.6 (tar version: 1.29)
>> > -   Command used to extract the tar file is: tar -zxvf jre64.tar.Z
>> > -   'ls -l' on the extracted directory shows:
>> > lrwxrwxrwx  1 etbuild Domain Users      8 Jul 10  2017 ControlPanel -> jcontrol
>> > -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   7734 Mar 15  2017 java
>> > -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users 128791 Mar 15  2017 javaws
>> > -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   6264 Mar 15  2017 jcontrol
>> >
>> > -     As you can see 'ControlPanel' is a symlink file with 0KB
>> > (8Bytes) size. This file, I cannot open in any Windows editor. It
>> > throws error like ''The file cannot be accessed by the system'
>> >
>> > -    However, I can open this file in vi editor or I can 'cat' this.
>> >
>> > -    Earlier, I was using Cygwin version 1.7 (tar version: 1.27) & in
>> > that, this issue was not there. Symlink file size was 1KB & I could
>> > open it with any Windows editor.
>> >
>> > Please suggest what needs to be done to fix this issue.
>>
>> Hi, Vinay - Cygwin can use, and create, a variety of forms of links.  Some of these are understood
>> by Windows tools, some not.  I suggest you read in the Cygwin documentation about symlinks and
>> decide what kind are best for you.  Then you'll need to set that up, delete the existing link, and
>> re-create it.  I personally run with CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native, but as we say in Internet land, YMMV.
>>

> Hi Eliot Moss,
> Thank you very much for the quick response & the information.It really helped.
> I just set 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & I am now able to open sym-link
> file. Both 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks' are working
> for me.
> But it creates a shortcut(not the regular file). Hope it won't impact
> my existing setup.

> But both  'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native' (which is default I believe) &
> 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:nativestrict' are not working for me. Just to
> understand, In what OS environment/File System 'native' will work?

Given enough permissions, "native" will work everywhere, it will create native
symlink, but failing that, it will fall back to creating Cygwin link.

LNK is an Explorer shortcut, which would work with many programs outside
Cygwin, but not necessarily with your one.

See https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html#pathnames-symlinks as well as
https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygwinenv.html 


-- 
With best regards,
Andrey Repin
Sunday, October 4, 2020 7:47:13

Sorry for my terrible english...

Re: Problem with tar version 1.29 (in Cygwin 3.6 64 bit) in extracting sym-link files

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

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On 04/10/2020 11:28, Andrey Repin via Cygwin wrote:
> Greetings, vinay Hegde!
>
> Please no top-posting in this list.
>
>> On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 9:13 PM Eliot Moss wrote:
>>> On 10/2/2020 11:26 AM, vinay Hegde via Cygwin wrote:
>>>> Hi Cygwin Team,
>>>> In Cygwin 3.6, I am facing an issue while using tar.exe for extracting
>>>> .tar.z file.
>>>>
>>>> Issue summary:
>>>> When I use 'tar.exe' to extract the .tar.z file, it extracts all files
>>>> including symlinks. But symlink file size will be 0KB & it throws
>>>> error 'The file cannot be accessed by the system', if I try to open in
>>>> any Windows editor like notepad or notepad++
>>>>
>>>> Below are the details:
>>>> -   OS: Windows 2019
>>>> -   Cygwin version installed: 3.6 (tar version: 1.29)
>>>> -   Command used to extract the tar file is: tar -zxvf jre64.tar.Z
>>>> -   'ls -l' on the extracted directory shows:
>>>> lrwxrwxrwx  1 etbuild Domain Users      8 Jul 10  2017 ControlPanel -> jcontrol
>>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   7734 Mar 15  2017 java
>>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users 128791 Mar 15  2017 javaws
>>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   6264 Mar 15  2017 jcontrol
>>>>
>>>> -     As you can see 'ControlPanel' is a symlink file with 0KB
>>>> (8Bytes) size. This file, I cannot open in any Windows editor. It
>>>> throws error like ''The file cannot be accessed by the system'
>>>>
>>>> -    However, I can open this file in vi editor or I can 'cat' this.
>>>>
>>>> -    Earlier, I was using Cygwin version 1.7 (tar version: 1.27) & in
>>>> that, this issue was not there. Symlink file size was 1KB & I could
>>>> open it with any Windows editor.
>>>>
>>>> Please suggest what needs to be done to fix this issue.
>>> Hi, Vinay - Cygwin can use, and create, a variety of forms of links.  Some of these are understood
>>> by Windows tools, some not.  I suggest you read in the Cygwin documentation about symlinks and
>>> decide what kind are best for you.  Then you'll need to set that up, delete the existing link, and
>>> re-create it.  I personally run with CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native, but as we say in Internet land, YMMV.
>>>
>> Hi Eliot Moss,
>> Thank you very much for the quick response & the information.It really helped.
>> I just set 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & I am now able to open sym-link
>> file. Both 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks' are working
>> for me.
>> But it creates a shortcut(not the regular file). Hope it won't impact
>> my existing setup.
>> But both  'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native' (which is default I believe) &
>> 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:nativestrict' are not working for me. Just to
>> understand, In what OS environment/File System 'native' will work?
> Given enough permissions, "native" will work everywhere, it will create native
> symlink, but failing that, it will fall back to creating Cygwin link.
>
> LNK is an Explorer shortcut, which would work with many programs outside
> Cygwin, but not necessarily with your one.
>
> See https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html#pathnames-symlinks as well as
> https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygwinenv.html 

Does anyone happen to know if there's a way to automatically regenerate
existing symlinks after changing these settings?

Hamish


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Re: Problem with tar version 1.29 (in Cygwin 3.6 64 bit) in extracting sym-link files

[Brian Inglis]

On 2020-10-05 09:23, Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty via Cygwin wrote:
> On 04/10/2020 11:28, Andrey Repin via Cygwin wrote:
>> Greetings, vinay Hegde!
>>
>> Please no top-posting in this list.
>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 9:13 PM Eliot Moss wrote:
>>>> On 10/2/2020 11:26 AM, vinay Hegde via Cygwin wrote:
>>>>> Hi Cygwin Team,
>>>>> In Cygwin 3.6, I am facing an issue while using tar.exe for extracting
>>>>> .tar.z file.
>>>>>
>>>>> Issue summary:
>>>>> When I use 'tar.exe' to extract the .tar.z file, it extracts all files
>>>>> including symlinks. But symlink file size will be 0KB & it throws
>>>>> error 'The file cannot be accessed by the system', if I try to open in
>>>>> any Windows editor like notepad or notepad++
>>>>>
>>>>> Below are the details:
>>>>> -   OS: Windows 2019
>>>>> -   Cygwin version installed: 3.6 (tar version: 1.29)
>>>>> -   Command used to extract the tar file is: tar -zxvf jre64.tar.Z
>>>>> -   'ls -l' on the extracted directory shows:
>>>>> lrwxrwxrwx  1 etbuild Domain Users      8 Jul 10  2017 ControlPanel -> jcontrol
>>>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   7734 Mar 15  2017 java
>>>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users 128791 Mar 15  2017 javaws
>>>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   6264 Mar 15  2017 jcontrol
>>>>>
>>>>> -     As you can see 'ControlPanel' is a symlink file with 0KB
>>>>> (8Bytes) size. This file, I cannot open in any Windows editor. It
>>>>> throws error like ''The file cannot be accessed by the system'
>>>>>
>>>>> -    However, I can open this file in vi editor or I can 'cat' this.
>>>>>
>>>>> -    Earlier, I was using Cygwin version 1.7 (tar version: 1.27) & in
>>>>> that, this issue was not there. Symlink file size was 1KB & I could
>>>>> open it with any Windows editor.
>>>>>
>>>>> Please suggest what needs to be done to fix this issue.
>>>> Hi, Vinay - Cygwin can use, and create, a variety of forms of links.  Some of these are understood
>>>> by Windows tools, some not.  I suggest you read in the Cygwin documentation about symlinks and
>>>> decide what kind are best for you.  Then you'll need to set that up, delete the existing link, and
>>>> re-create it.  I personally run with CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native, but as we say in Internet land, YMMV.
>>>>
>>> Hi Eliot Moss,
>>> Thank you very much for the quick response & the information.It really helped.
>>> I just set 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & I am now able to open sym-link
>>> file. Both 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks' are working
>>> for me.
>>> But it creates a shortcut(not the regular file). Hope it won't impact
>>> my existing setup.
>>> But both  'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native' (which is default I believe) &
>>> 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:nativestrict' are not working for me. Just to
>>> understand, In what OS environment/File System 'native' will work?
>> Given enough permissions, "native" will work everywhere, it will create native
>> symlink, but failing that, it will fall back to creating Cygwin link.
>>
>> LNK is an Explorer shortcut, which would work with many programs outside
>> Cygwin, but not necessarily with your one.
>>
>> See https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html#pathnames-symlinks as well as
>> https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygwinenv.html 
> 
> Does anyone happen to know if there's a way to automatically regenerate
> existing symlinks after changing these settings?

Example: remove the "echo" after checking it will update only the desired links:

$ for link in `find . -type l`
> do
>   targ=`readlink $link`
>   echo ln -fsv $targ $link
> done
ln -fsv linux-kernel/linux-next/cpufeatures.h ./cpufeatures.h
ln -fsv linux-kernel/linux-next/cpufeatures.log ./cpufeatures.log
ln -fsv ../../cygwin/newlib-cygwin/winsup/cygwin/fhandler_proc.cc
./cpuinfo/fhandler_proc.cc
ln -fsv ../../cygwin/newlib-cygwin/winsup/cygwin/sysconf.cc ./cpuinfo/sysconf.cc
ln -fsv ../cygwin/cpuid ./cygwin
ln -fsv CPUID_Explorer/CPUID/Debug Static/CPUID.exe ./explorer
ln -fsv /lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-cygwin/9.3.0/include/cpuid.h ./gcc/cpuid.h
ln -fsv linux-kernel/linux-prev-next.diff ./linux-prev-next.diff
ln -fsv linux-kernel/linux-next/scattered.log ./scattered.log

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

This email may be disturbing to some readers as it contains
too much technical detail. Reader discretion is advised.
[Data in binary units and prefixes, physical quantities in SI.]

Re: Problem with tar version 1.29 (in Cygwin 3.6 64 bit) in extracting sym-link files

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

[-- Attachment #1.1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 4900 bytes --]

On 05/10/2020 18:29, Brian Inglis wrote:
> On 2020-10-05 09:23, Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty via Cygwin wrote:
>> On 04/10/2020 11:28, Andrey Repin via Cygwin wrote:
>>> Greetings, vinay Hegde!
>>>
>>> Please no top-posting in this list.
>>>
>>>> On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 9:13 PM Eliot Moss wrote:
>>>>> On 10/2/2020 11:26 AM, vinay Hegde via Cygwin wrote:
>>>>>> Hi Cygwin Team,
>>>>>> In Cygwin 3.6, I am facing an issue while using tar.exe for extracting
>>>>>> .tar.z file.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Issue summary:
>>>>>> When I use 'tar.exe' to extract the .tar.z file, it extracts all files
>>>>>> including symlinks. But symlink file size will be 0KB & it throws
>>>>>> error 'The file cannot be accessed by the system', if I try to open in
>>>>>> any Windows editor like notepad or notepad++
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Below are the details:
>>>>>> -   OS: Windows 2019
>>>>>> -   Cygwin version installed: 3.6 (tar version: 1.29)
>>>>>> -   Command used to extract the tar file is: tar -zxvf jre64.tar.Z
>>>>>> -   'ls -l' on the extracted directory shows:
>>>>>> lrwxrwxrwx  1 etbuild Domain Users      8 Jul 10  2017 ControlPanel -> jcontrol
>>>>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   7734 Mar 15  2017 java
>>>>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users 128791 Mar 15  2017 javaws
>>>>>> -rwxr-xr-x+ 1 etbuild Domain Users   6264 Mar 15  2017 jcontrol
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -     As you can see 'ControlPanel' is a symlink file with 0KB
>>>>>> (8Bytes) size. This file, I cannot open in any Windows editor. It
>>>>>> throws error like ''The file cannot be accessed by the system'
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -    However, I can open this file in vi editor or I can 'cat' this.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -    Earlier, I was using Cygwin version 1.7 (tar version: 1.27) & in
>>>>>> that, this issue was not there. Symlink file size was 1KB & I could
>>>>>> open it with any Windows editor.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Please suggest what needs to be done to fix this issue.
>>>>> Hi, Vinay - Cygwin can use, and create, a variety of forms of links.  Some of these are understood
>>>>> by Windows tools, some not.  I suggest you read in the Cygwin documentation about symlinks and
>>>>> decide what kind are best for you.  Then you'll need to set that up, delete the existing link, and
>>>>> re-create it.  I personally run with CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native, but as we say in Internet land, YMMV.
>>>>>
>>>> Hi Eliot Moss,
>>>> Thank you very much for the quick response & the information.It really helped.
>>>> I just set 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & I am now able to open sym-link
>>>> file. Both 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk' & 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks' are working
>>>> for me.
>>>> But it creates a shortcut(not the regular file). Hope it won't impact
>>>> my existing setup.
>>>> But both  'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:native' (which is default I believe) &
>>>> 'CYGWIN=winsymlinks:nativestrict' are not working for me. Just to
>>>> understand, In what OS environment/File System 'native' will work?
>>> Given enough permissions, "native" will work everywhere, it will create native
>>> symlink, but failing that, it will fall back to creating Cygwin link.
>>>
>>> LNK is an Explorer shortcut, which would work with many programs outside
>>> Cygwin, but not necessarily with your one.
>>>
>>> See https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html#pathnames-symlinks as well as
>>> https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygwinenv.html 
>> Does anyone happen to know if there's a way to automatically regenerate
>> existing symlinks after changing these settings?
> Example: remove the "echo" after checking it will update only the desired links:
>
> $ for link in `find . -type l`
>> do
>>   targ=`readlink $link`
>>   echo ln -fsv $targ $link
>> done
> ln -fsv linux-kernel/linux-next/cpufeatures.h ./cpufeatures.h
> ln -fsv linux-kernel/linux-next/cpufeatures.log ./cpufeatures.log
> ln -fsv ../../cygwin/newlib-cygwin/winsup/cygwin/fhandler_proc.cc
> ./cpuinfo/fhandler_proc.cc
> ln -fsv ../../cygwin/newlib-cygwin/winsup/cygwin/sysconf.cc ./cpuinfo/sysconf.cc
> ln -fsv ../cygwin/cpuid ./cygwin
> ln -fsv CPUID_Explorer/CPUID/Debug Static/CPUID.exe ./explorer
> ln -fsv /lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-cygwin/9.3.0/include/cpuid.h ./gcc/cpuid.h
> ln -fsv linux-kernel/linux-prev-next.diff ./linux-prev-next.diff
> ln -fsv linux-kernel/linux-next/scattered.log ./scattered.log

Cheers, worked for me.

In my case, I'm bundling Cygwin in an installer package for one of my
programs, so I used this trick to regenerate all my Cygwin symlinks as
Windows .lnk files (using 32-bit Cygwin to run that on C:\cygwin64 and
vice versa). I'm aware that it was probably Not Recommended (TM) to do
that so I made backups first. All seems fine so far.

I was having problems with the bundles and I figured Cygwin might be
using WSL symlinks (my dev VM is running Windows 10), so I thought it
was worth a try. Cheers.

Hamish


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