On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 9:18 AM, Marcel Loose <lo...@astron.nl> wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-12-11 at 14:51 +0100, Michael Wild wrote: > > On 11. Dec, 2009, at 14:27 , Marcel Loose wrote: > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > > I was browsing the CMake sources for a problem I was facing with the > > > creation of symlinks (on Unix that is) and I noticed that the > > > SystemTools::CreateSymlink function simply returns false when building > > > on a Windows platform. > > > > > > Does that mean that I cannot use 'cmake -E create_symlink' on Windows. > > > If that's the case I consider it a bug, because the documentation > > > suggests that 'cmake -E create_symlink' provides a platform independent > > > way of creating symbolic links. So, if the OS and/or filesystem does > not > > > support symbolic links, IMHO, it should just copy the file. > > > > > > Best regards, > > > Marcel Loose. > > > > > > > Simply copying the file might be just as bad if people assume it really > IS a symlink... IMHO, if the OS can't create a symlink, cmake -E > create_symlink should fail loudly, not just silently ignore it. And somebody > should implement this function for Windows >= Vista/2008 (i.e. WINVER >= > 0x0600): > > > > http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363866(VS.85).aspx > > > > Michael > > Hi Michael, > > I think it depends. Failing loudly may not always be desirable, just as > failing silently. > > In my particular case, I was just creating a bunch of symlinks to > directories; no need to discern these symlinks from the actual > directories, but I need to be able to access the directory contents. > > When it comes to symlinks to files, there may be situations where you > would really like it to be a link, e.g. when editing the file. Would > that be a CMake usage scenario?? > > I don't know what's the best way to deal with this issue. What do the > CMake developers think of this? > I can't speak for the rest of the CMake developers, but personally, I just simply avoid symlinks at all costs in projects that are meant to be cross-platform. If I'm working on a Mac-or-Linux-only project, symlinks can sometimes be useful... but they are simply not useful on Windows. Just my opinion, David
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