Symbolic Links - Copying

[bwatch]

Greetings,


I have a large number of symbolic links (soft links) on my PC that I want to migrate to a new machine with an identical directory structure. When I use various backup or copy programs that clone files (bit copy), the symbolic links do not work on the target machine (they get converted to empty files instead of links). Any help would be appreciated.

 

[MilesAhead]

This link may be helpful.

 

[Pyprohly]

When I use various backup or copy programs that clone files (bit copy), the symbolic links do not work on the target machine (they get converted to empty files instead of links).

That behaviour depends on the software you use.

If your backup software does not support copying symbolic links, here’s a handy Windows tip: run the following command directly after your backup routine. This command copies all reparse points.

robocopy [COLOR="Red"]source[/COLOR] [COLOR="Red"]destination[/COLOR] /s /sl /ia:t /w:0 /r:0

Caveat: this command should be run with administrative privileges. Of course, this is because symbolic link creation requires the SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege privilege which only administrative accounts have access to by default.