Re: [PATCH] git-new-workdir: add windows compatibility

[Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>]

Hi Paul,

On 2015-05-26 14:20, Paul Smith wrote:
> On Tue, 2015-05-26 at 11:53 +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
>> The biggest problem with `mklink` is that it is only supported on
>> Windows Vista and later, while I really like to keep Windows XP
>> support in Git for Windows.
> 
> No, the biggest problem with mklink is that you have to have
> administrative privileges to use it... from wikipedia:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link

It is even worse than that, as you pointed out below: administrators *can* permit non-administrators to create and use of symbolic links.

However, from a maintainer's perspective (which is my role in this thread), the compatibility problem is an even worse problem than the permissions.

>> The default security settings in Windows Vista/Windows 7 disallow
>> non-elevated administrators and all non-administrators from creating
>> symbolic links. This behavior can be changed running "secpol.msc" the
>> Local Security Policy management console (under: Security Settings
>> \Local Policies\User Rights Assignment\Create symbolic links). It can
>> be worked around by starting cmd.exe with Run as administrator option
>> or the runas command.
> 
> Except even that is not so simple, as various StackOverflow questions
> and answers will show (I have to run so I can't look them up now).  I
> did try to get this to work a year or so ago, and although I'm in no way
> a Windows person (so maybe someone else would have better luck) I
> couldn't get it to work.

For what it is worth, I tried my hand a couple of years ago at the project to move git-new-workdir to use the `.git` *file* and alternates mechanisms, but that does not work because you really need a separate `.git/HEAD`.

Ciao,
Johannes