Feature-Request: LinuxSymlink handling on NTFS as ReparsePoints or Copy on FAT/FAT32

[ifrh]

• I was not able to find an open
  or closed issue
  matching what I'm seeing

  I found mingw: treat junction points the same as symlinks #437 and git clean removes content of symlinks #607 but these doesn't cover my point completly

Setup

• Which version of Git for Windows are you using? Is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

$ git --version --build-options
git version 1.9.5.msysgit.1

• Which version of Windows are you running? Vista, 7, 8, 10? Is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

Windows XP Home, SP3, German, 32-bit

$ cmd.exe /c ver

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]

• What options did you set as part of the installation? Or did you choose the
  defaults?

# One of the following:
> type "C:\Program Files\Git\etc\install-options.txt"
> type "C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\etc\install-options.txt"
> type "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Programs\Git\etc\install-options.txt"
$ cat /etc/install-options.txt
cat: /etc/install-options.txt: No such file or directory

• Any other interesting things about your environment that might be related
  to the issue you're seeing?

>dir "C:\Git\etc\"

 Verzeichnis von C:\Git\etc

08.05.2015  21:22    <DIR>          .
08.05.2015  21:22    <DIR>          ..
19.03.2015  23:33             2.600 fileList-bindimage.txt
19.03.2015  23:32             3.771 fileList-builtins.txt
19.03.2015  23:33            54.528 git-completion.bash
19.03.2015  23:33            15.349 git-prompt.sh
19.03.2015  23:33            55.316 git.ico
19.03.2015  23:33               232 gitattributes
08.05.2015  21:22               321 gitconfig
19.03.2015  23:33             1.881 inputrc
19.03.2015  23:33               159 motd
19.03.2015  23:33             4.694 profile
19.03.2015  23:33            12.326 termcap

Details

• Which terminal/shell are you running Git from? e.g Bash/CMD/PowerShell/other

  Bash (msys, git-msys) and CMD

• What commands did you run to trigger this issue?

git clone
git pull 
git commit 
git push

If you clone a repository which contains linux symlinks,
linux symlinks in git are type 120000 (see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5917249/git-symlinks-in-windows ),
than you get on Windows NTFS a text file containing the absolut or relativ path to the linked file.

• What did you expect to occur after running these commands? What actually happened instead?

Depending on version of Windows and Filesystem I expected, that git for windows creates while cloneor pull a NTFS-Reparsepoint (hard link, softlink , junction) or on FAT-Systems a real-copy and not a textfile containing the absolut or relativ path to the linked file.
And while add, commit, push I expect, that Reparsepoints are converted for saving into git "database" to textfiles of type 120000

Best regards,
Robert

[shiftkey]

$ git --version --build-options
git version 1.9.5.msysgit.1

I don't expect Git 1.9 to get any more updates. Are you able to test this behaviour on a more recent version of Git for Windows?

[ifrh]

Same behavior for

$ git --version --build-options
git version 2.10.0.windows.1
sizeof-long: 4
machine: x86

running under Windows 8.1 (64bit) german

cmd.exe /c ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]

Best regards,
Robert

[aresq]

Same for:
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10586]

git version 2.10.0.windows.1
sizeof-long: 4
machine: x86_64

[PhilipOakley]

See https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/wiki/Symbolic-Links for gory details provide by those who know more than me...

[dscho]

Indeed, @PhilipOakley's response points you to the best explanation of the issue we have so far (including the description of the core.symlinks config setting, which is also mentioned in the Known Issues section of our Release Notes...).

[dscho]

Please note that core.symlinks = true will not only require admin privileges, it will not generate junctions either, but only symlinks, available in Vista and later.

@ifrh if this does not satisfy your needs, please note that I am eager to take your contributions but won't have time to implement any symlink handling other than what we have already.