cmd.exe and powershell.exe cannot follow <JUNCTIONS> on NTFS for *.exe

Wed Jun 18 16:20:26 GMT 2025

On Tue, Jun 17, 2025 at 5:25 PM Aurélien Couderc
<aurelien.couderc2002@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Cygwin creates <JUNCTIONS> instead of <SYMLINK> on NTFS, but cmd.exe
> cannot find the *.exe if they are linked as <JUNCTIONS>.
>> Two test cases:
> $ bash -c $'rm -f id_vers15.exe ; cp /usr/bin/id.exe id_vers15.exe ;
> ln -sf id_vers15.exe myid.exe ; cmd /C \'.\\\\\myid.exe\''
> $ bash -c $'rm -f id_vers15.exe ; cp /usr/bin/id.exe id_vers15.exe ;
> ln -sf id_vers15.exe myid.exe ; powershell -Command
> \'.\\\\\myid.exe\''
>> In both test cases the copied and linked myid.exe cannot be executed.
>> Is there a way to fix this?

Why does Cygwin not use SYMBOLIC_LINK_FLAG_ALLOW_UNPRIVILEGED_CREATE?
Aurélien
-- 
Aurélien Couderc <aurelien.couderc2002@gmail.com>
Big Data/Data mining expert, chess enthusiast