Creating hard and soft links using PowerShell

Question

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

User · Answer

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.

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

You can use this utility    c  Windows system32 fsutil exe create hardlink

User · Answer

Add  quot pscx quot  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  quot internal command quot   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

User · Answer

I combined two answers   bviktor and  jocassid   It was tested on Windows nbsp 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

User · Answer

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 nbsp XP  I do not know of anything other than Sysinternals junction  so you might be limited to directories

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

Try junction exe The Junction command line utility from SysInternals makes creating and deleting junctions easy  Further reading  MS Terminology  soft    symbolic Microsoft uses  quot soft link quot  as another name for  quot junction quot   However  a  quot symbolic link quot  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  quot soft link quot  and  quot symbolic link quot    quot symlink quot   DO mean the same thing

[powershell] Creating hard and soft links using PowerShell

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