Re: pg_upgrade --link on Windows

On Fri, 9 Jun 2017 07:24:03 -0700, Adrian Klaver
<adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com> wrote:

>https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365006(v=vs.85).aspx
>
>Seems to me the difference is hard links point to file, junctions to
>directories.

You can make either hard links or symlinks to files. Junctions are
distinct from normal symlinks in that junctions can cross filesystems.
Microsoft's cmdline tools complain if you try to make a junction to a
file, because Microsoft intended junctions for mount points ... but
you can do it programmatically, or trick the tool by creating the link
and then replacing the target, and in most cases it will work the same
as a normal symlink.

I have seen cases where a junction to a file didn't work, but they
seemed to be application related rather than an OS issue. Prior to
Vista, the mklink utility was not available, so people wanting to
create symlinks were forced to use the sysinternals junction utility.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb545021.aspx

George