Ability to create, copy and paste as Symbolic Links

[blah68]

As title said, please add support to allow creation of symbolic links. I can create symbolic links via command lines and Symlink creator, but it would be great to see xyplorer support it. xplorer2 has the ability to paste copied folders as symbolic links which has saved me a lot of time and kept me switching to xyplorer completely.

[admin]

This would be very easy to do.

But first tell me: For what do you need these links?

[xman]

I had a similar suggestion here: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2612

Anyway, it's pretty obvious, how it can be used. It's like hard links, but it can be used on folders as well, it can be easily identified as a link, it works over different drives and supports relative paths. Two downsides are, that the link can't be placed on a non-NTFS drive and it works only on Win Vista and newer (on XP and older, you could use Junctions, but they work on folders only).

For example, you can avoid duplication of files or entire folders, using this method. In my case, I have my files neatly sorted in a complex directory structure, but here and there, I need one of those files put elsewhere. With symbolic links, I could just put a link and wouldn't need to copy anything.

You can also redirect various folders in AppData to folders of your choice, so the data is saved outside of the system wherever you want. This is what I do, to make some applications portable, which aren't by nature.

Also ideal for simple shortcuts - except they redirect all operations to the actual file/folder and don't get messed up, when the drive letter changes.

[admin]

I had a similar suggestion here: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2612

Anyway, it's pretty obvious, how it can be used. It's like hard links, but it can be used on folders as well, it can be easily identified as a link, it works over different drives and supports relative paths. Two downsides are, that the link can't be placed on a non-NTFS drive and it works only on Win Vista and newer (on XP and older, you could use Junctions, but they work on folders only).

For example, you can avoid duplication of files or entire folders, using this method. In my case, I have my files neatly sorted in a complex directory structure, but here and there, I need one of those files put elsewhere. With symbolic links, I could just put a link and wouldn't need to copy anything.

You can also redirect various folders in AppData to folders of your choice, so the data is saved outside of the system wherever you want. This is what I do, to make some applications portable, which aren't by nature.

Also ideal for simple shortcuts - except they redirect all operations to the actual file/folder and don't get messed up, when the drive letter changes.

Alright, let's call it "next summer". I did it. Check next beta...

[xman]

Great work and thanks, Don!

[admin]

Great work and thanks, Don!

I now think "Directory Junction" is the better (= more official) name for what I called "Folder Junction". Can you confirm this?

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS#Directory_junctions

EDIT: Or simply "Create Junction(s)". KISS.

UPDATE: No reply necessary. Done.

[vegard]

You might also want to have a look at "Link Shell Extension", at: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshel ... llext.html

[admin]

You might also want to have a look at "Link Shell Extension", at: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshel ... llext.html

Yep, I know it. Good overview.

[blah68]

This would be very easy to do.

But first tell me: For what do you need these links?

Sorry I was so busy and did not follow up the topic. I use symlinks to direct the program folders and data folders from system drives (SSD) to my data drive (hard disk). So I can free up space on the SSD drive.

ex: iTunes default backup folder:

Code: Select all

%Appdata%\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

Symlink/Junction to

Code: Select all

D:\iTunes\MobileSync\Backup

I also use symlinks to redirect the folders in program files to the data drive, like

Code: Select all

c:\program files\foobar2000

to

Code: Select all

D:\program files\foobar2000

I checked out the latest version, they worked great, however, I have two requests:
1) an option to disable the dialog that ask you for the symbolic link name
2) an option to remove "SymLink to" in front of symlinks as default during creation

That way I can copy and paste multiple folders as symbolic links with a few clicks just like regular folders. Thanks!

[admin]

I checked out the latest version, they worked great, however, I have two requests:
1) an option to disable the dialog that ask you for the symbolic link name
2) an option to remove "SymLink to" in front of symlinks as default during creation

That way I can copy and paste multiple folders as symbolic links with a few clicks just like regular folders. Thanks!

I see. I will wait a bit and see if more ideas for this feature come up in the next weeks... currently there is practically no feedback on it coming in...

[blah68]

I checked out the latest version, they worked great, however, I have two requests:
1) an option to disable the dialog that ask you for the symbolic link name
2) an option to remove "SymLink to" in front of symlinks as default during creation

That way I can copy and paste multiple folders as symbolic links with a few clicks just like regular folders. Thanks!

I see. I will wait a bit and see if more ideas for this feature come up in the next weeks... currently there is practically no feedback on it coming in...

That's great. I will look forward to these options/features added in next version. because I frequently create symlinks from data drive, it would save me significant time without removing "SymLink to" one by one.