Git Bash Shell fails to create symbolic links

I believe that the ln that shipped with MSysGit simply tries to copy its arguments, rather than fiddle with links. This is because links only work (sort of) on NTFS filesystems, and the MSYS team didn't want to reimplement ln.

See, for example, http://mingw.5.n7.nabble.com/symbolic-link-to-My-Documents-in-MSYS-td28492.html

It is possible, albeit extremely awkward, to create a symbolic link in MSysGit.

First, we need to make sure we are on Windows. Here's an example function to check that:

windows() { [[ -n "$WINDIR" ]]; }

Now, we can't do cmd /C, because MSysGit will fornicate with this argument and turn it into C:. Also, don't be tempted to use /K; it only works if you don't have a K: drive.

So while it will replace this value on program arguments, it won't on heredocs. We can use this to our advantage:

if windows; then
    cmd <<< "mklink /D \"${link%/}\" \"${target%/}\"" > /dev/null
else
    ln -s "$target" "$link"
fi

Also: note that I included /D because I'm interested in directory symlinks only; Windows has that distinction. With plenty of effort, you could write a ln() { ... } function that wraps the Windows API and serves as a complete drop-in solution, but that's... left as an exercise for the reader.

---

As a thank-you for the accepted answer, here's a more comprehensive function.

# We still need this.
windows() { [[ -n "$WINDIR" ]]; }

# Cross-platform symlink function. With one parameter, it will check
# whether the parameter is a symlink. With two parameters, it will create
# a symlink to a file or directory, with syntax: link $linkname $target
link() {
    if [[ -z "$2" ]]; then
        # Link-checking mode.
        if windows; then
            fsutil reparsepoint query "$1" > /dev/null
        else
            [[ -h "$1" ]]
        fi
    else
        # Link-creation mode.
        if windows; then
            # Windows needs to be told if it's a directory or not. Infer that.
            # Also: note that we convert `/` to `\`. In this case it's necessary.
            if [[ -d "$2" ]]; then
                cmd <<< "mklink /D \"$1\" \"${2//\//\\}\"" > /dev/null
            else
                cmd <<< "mklink \"$1\" \"${2//\//\\}\"" > /dev/null
            fi
        else
            # You know what? I think ln's parameters are backwards.
            ln -s "$2" "$1"
        fi
    fi
}

Also note a few things:

1. I just wrote this and briefly tested it on Windows 7 and Ubuntu, give it a try first if you're from 2015 and using Windows 9.
2. NTFS has reparse points and junction points. I chose reparse points, because it's more of an actual symbolic link and works for files or directories, but junction points would have the benefit of being an usable solution in Windows XP, except it's just for directories.
3. Some filesystems, the FAT ones in particular, do not support symbolic links. Modern Windows versions do not support booting from them anymore, but Windows and Linux can mount them.

Bonus function: remove a link.

# Remove a link, cross-platform.
rmlink() {
    if windows; then
        # Again, Windows needs to be told if it's a file or directory.
        if [[ -d "$1" ]]; then
            rmdir "$1";
        else
            rm "$1"
        fi
    else
        rm "$1"
    fi
}

A workaround is to run mklink from Bash. This also allows you to create either a symbolic link or a junction point.

Take care to send the mklink command as a single argument to cmd...

cmd /c "mklink link target"

Here are the options for mklink...

cmd /c mklink

Output:

   Creates a symbolic link.

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

    /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
            symbolic link.
    /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
    /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
    Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
    Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
            refers to.

If you want to create links via a GUI instead ... I recommend Link Shell Extension that is a Windows Explorer plugin for creating symbolic links, hard links, junction points, and volume mount points. I've been using it for years!

Link Shell Extension

Symbolic links can be a life saver if you have a smaller SSD drive on your system C: drive and need to symbolic link some bloated folders that don't need to be on SSD, but off onto other drives. I use the free WinDirStat to find the disk space hogs.

For my setup, that is Git for Windows 2.11.0 installed on Windows 8.1, export MSYS=winsymlinks:nativestrict does the trick as explained on Symlink support #156.

It was important to launch the Git Bash shell as administrator as on Windows only administrators could create the symbolic links.

So, in order to make tar -xf work and create the required symbolic links:

1. Run Git Bash shell as an administrator
2. Run export MSYS=winsymlinks:nativestrict
3. Run tar