Creating hard and soft links using PowerShell
PowershellSymlinkPowershell Problem Overview
Can PowerShell 1.0 create hard and soft links analogous to the Unix variety?
If this isn't built in, can someone point me to a site that has a ps1 script that mimics this?
This is a necessary function of any good shell, IMHO. :)
Powershell Solutions
Solution 1 - Powershell
Windows 10 (and Powershell 5.0 in general) allows you to create symbolic links via the New-Item cmdlet.
Usage:
New-Item -Path C:\LinkDir -ItemType SymbolicLink -Value F:\RealDir
Or in your profile:
function make-link ($target, $link) {
New-Item -Path $link -ItemType SymbolicLink -Value $target
}
Turn on Developer Mode to not require admin privileges when making links with New-Item
:
Solution 2 - Powershell
You can call the mklink
provided by cmd
, from PowerShell to make symbolic links:
cmd /c mklink c:\path\to\symlink c:\target\file
You must pass /d
to mklink
if the target is a directory.
cmd /c mklink /d c:\path\to\symlink c:\target\directory
For hard links, I suggest something like Sysinternals Junction.
Solution 3 - Powershell
Add "pscx" module
No, it isn't built into PowerShell. And the mklink
utility cannot be called on its own on Windows Vista/Windows 7 because it is built directly into cmd.exe
as an "internal command".
You can use the PowerShell Community Extensions (free). There are several cmdlets for reparse points of various types:
New-HardLink
,New-SymLink
,New-Junction
,Remove-ReparsePoint
- and others.
Solution 4 - Powershell
In Windows 7, the command is
fsutil hardlink create new-file existing-file
PowerShell finds it without the full path (c:\Windows\system32) or extension (.exe).
Solution 5 - Powershell
New-Symlink:
Function New-SymLink ($link, $target)
{
if (test-path -pathtype container $target)
{
$command = "cmd /c mklink /d"
}
else
{
$command = "cmd /c mklink"
}
invoke-expression "$command $link $target"
}
Remove-Symlink:
Function Remove-SymLink ($link)
{
if (test-path -pathtype container $link)
{
$command = "cmd /c rmdir"
}
else
{
$command = "cmd /c del"
}
invoke-expression "$command $link"
}
Usage:
New-Symlink "c:\foo\bar" "c:\foo\baz"
Remove-Symlink "c:\foo\bar"
Solution 6 - Powershell
Try junction.exe
The Junction command line utility from SysInternals makes creating and deleting junctions easy.
Further reading
- MS Terminology: soft != symbolic
Microsoft uses "soft link" as another name for "junction".
However: a "symbolic link" is something else entirely.
See MSDN: Hard Links and Junctions in Windows.
(This is in direct contradiction to the general usage of those terms where "soft link" and "symbolic link" ("symlink") DO mean the same thing.)
Solution 7 - Powershell
I combined two answers (@bviktor and @jocassid). It was tested on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012.
function New-SymLink ($link, $target)
{
if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -ge 5)
{
New-Item -Path $link -ItemType SymbolicLink -Value $target
}
else
{
$command = "cmd /c mklink /d"
invoke-expression "$command ""$link"" ""$target"""
}
}
Solution 8 - Powershell
You can use this utility:
c:\Windows\system32\fsutil.exe create hardlink
Solution 9 - Powershell
I wrote a PowerShell module that has native wrappers for MKLINK. https://gist.github.com/2891103
Includes functions for:
- New-Symlink
- New-HardLink
- New-Junction
Captures the MKLINK output and throws proper PowerShell errors when necessary.
Solution 10 - Powershell
Actually, the Sysinternals junction
command only works with directories (don't ask me why), so it can't hardlink files. I would go with cmd /c mklink
for soft links (I can't figure why it's not supported directly by PowerShell), or fsutil
for hardlinks.
If you need it to work on Windows XP, I do not know of anything other than Sysinternals junction
, so you might be limited to directories.
Solution 11 - Powershell
I found this the simple way without external help. Yes, it uses an archaic DOS command but it works, it's easy, and it's clear.
$target = cmd /c dir /a:l | ? { $_ -match "mySymLink \[.*\]$" } | % `
{
$_.Split([char[]] @( '[', ']' ), [StringSplitOptions]::RemoveEmptyEntries)[1]
}
This uses the DOS dir command to find all entries with the symbolic link attribute, filters on the specific link name followed by target "[]" brackets, and for each - presumably one - extracts just the target string.