Soft links are ok, what about hard links?

[roentgen]

+1 from me too (uhh... the danger ).

[sqa_wizard]

Well, I see the danger too. AFAIK even starting with Vista the Windows Explorer can handle Junctions correctly ...

If everybody, who has access to the filesystem, uses TC you are save. If only one doesn't and has Win2000 or XP then keep your fingers crossed ...

Nevertheless I am using hardlinks and junctions a lot !

Have you ever tried the excellent NtfsLinks TC Addon ?
It works seamless from within TC.
I'm using it on a daily base and never had problems ... thanks Flint for this addon !

[icfu]

If everybody, who has access to the filesystem, uses TC you are save

You are not safe *at all*, because Explorer deletion method works in TC as well, by context menu or default setting in preferences.

Have you ever tried the excellent NtfsLinks TC Addon ?

It's a nice workaround but professional file managers should have junction and hard link support integrated.

Icfu

[Flint]

but professional file managers should have junction and hard link support integrated.

Fully agree!
TC allows users to remove directories recursively - and cannot even create a hard link to a file. I don't think that the second action is more dangerous than the first one.

I could agree that junction (soft link, reparse point) to a directory may not be safe - the result of removing it via Explorer method can be painful. But I failed to imagine what harm can bring hard links (that are created for files only).

[MarkFilipak]

I know it's been 7 years, but hard links are needed more than ever.

At least show link count in the file list.

[Balderstrom]

TC is a File Manager, name one good reason why a File Manager should be able to create Junctions, Hardlinks, Softlinks or Symbolic links.

TC can't even copy a junction without converting it to an empty useless folder.

[Balderstrom]

Take a look at this thread: copy reparse points as is -- not their contents (Jul.28/2012 - Jan.06/2013).

Hermann Schinagl, author of LinkShellExtension, offered his assistance to help integrate said extension with TC, so that Mr.Ghisler wouldn't need to start from scratch. The offer of assistance was flat out refused.

So pretty damned unlikely TC will ever handle Symlinks, Softlinks, Hardlinks or Junctions beyond the crippled way it does so now.

And if you don't want to look at said thread, here's a post of mine (Jul.30 2012)

TC's handling of Junctions has been questionable since Junctions were introduced (Win2K, I believe).
2005: Flint: [Req] Improvement in work with directory junctions on NTFS.
2007: Status Quo: Junctions not recognized on Move, source contents deleted
2012: zupermario: Do not follow NTFS links
-- Similiar to my request in the thread from 2007.

This request, similiar to my request in zupermario's thread from this year.

I cringe everytime I have to copy folders with TC. Folder structures will get reamed, unneccessary files will be moved/copied, and junctions will be converted to folders.

At least when MOVING folders, junctions inside folders appear to be preserved (Similiar to Explorer).
When copying Folders, junctions are converted to Folders, and their contents duplicated. Unfortunately, even explorer mishandles this IMHO :: does not copy the contents of the junction, but converts it to a normal folder.

If I don't remember that a folder structure contained junctions, and don't manually fix it, and happen to delete the Original Source later... I no longer have junction references pointing to where they are supposed to be, content has been duplicated, and files are no longer referencing the drive/data/content that they are supposed to be.

It took 8-10 years for TC to stop completely mishandling junctions and causing data loss since they were introduced with Win2K. That aspect was fixed somewhere between 2008-2010. Given that time-frame, sometime in 2017-2019, TC might have an option for handling hardlinks|symlinks. And by then, Microsoft will probably have a new file-type that TC will munge.