Synchronize directories for symbolic files always not equal

[ehab]

hi

i have a directory consists of junction dirs and symbolic files, i created the symbolic file using mklink command.

when i invoke Synchronize directories from menu the symbolic files are always not equal. I did notice the file size for symbolic files are zero and perhaps TC does not recalculate the file size for symbolic link.

MY question: did anyone use Synchronize directories with symbolic files and have result displayed correctly?

any advise / tips appreciated.

[ghisler(Author)]

The file size for symbolic links is not available. Try the dir command on the command line, it has the same problem. Try mklink /h to create hard links instead.

[MVV]

Symlinks are ugly, they don't show file size (always 0), they don't show real file date (always symlink creation date).

[ehab]

i tried the /H part and when the target file is updated the link file does not!

mklink /H f:\somedir\k.k f:\anotherdir\k.k

if k.k in anotherdir is updated i expected the k.k in somedir is actually the prior. maybe i am doing something wrong!

[MVV]

Hardlinks for the file are all equal, you can't say that one is real file and other is link, they all are just directory entries pointing to same file contents. Problem is that each of them as directory entry holds own attributes (modify date, size etc) which are updated by Windows when you open file by that link.

I usually compare files by contents in order to update hardlink attributes but maybe it may be done with some script/tool. Don't know how slow it will be if TC will open/close every file to be compared.

[ehab]

i have hundreds maybe thousands of files normal and encrypted between different drives internal/usb/network/webdav etc .... i can't compare by contents.

in Beyondcompare there is an option "follow symbolic link" and does the job well, i was using that before i moved to TC, im not moving back but maybe this can be worked around using a plugin.

thanks for hints.

[MVV]

Would be nice to learn TC to get attributes of symlink target instead of useless symlink attributes.
But if symlink may be easilly detected by WIN32_FIND_DATA.dwReserved0 field value, it is not so easy to detect hardlinks because every file is already a hardlink (it is necessary to open file and get extended information with link count... but after opening file its attributes will be refreshed anyway).