[Lazarus] Absolute paths on different platforms

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

Sven Barth schrieb:
> On 26.06.2011 13:50, Hans-Peter Diettrich wrote:
>> Mark Morgan Lloyd schrieb:
>>
>>> Does Windows still support commands like "subst" and "join"?
>>
>> A friend uses SUBST e.g. for his own libraries, and he cannot use
>> FPC/Lazarus because these are unable to find his files in e.g. X:\.
>>
> 
> Why can't he use that? SUBST uses the same mechanism that is used for 
> e.g. C:\ so all folders that are mapped using SUBST (or its underlying 
> API) are accessible the same way from the Windows API as "normal" drives 
> are.

AFAIR FPC/RTL could not find files in a root directory, e.g. 
X:\myfile.pas. This may be due to the missing ".." entry in "normal" 
drive root directories.

>>> Alternatively I believe that it does now have an equivalent of
>>> symlinks for directories.
>>
>> NT is POSIX compatible, at least with regards to files and inodes.
>> Symlinks exist since the introduction of desktop shortcuts/icons and the
>> Windows Explorer, in all file systems. The implementation (of symlinks
>> and SUBST) may vary, though, depending on the concrete filesystem.
> 
> But shortcuts aren't the same as symlinks. Shortcuts are normal files 
> and they can be opened like that using e.g. OpenFile while you need to 
> use special APIs to work on symlinks.

Maybe, but when I "open" an shortcut to an folder, I get the folder 
contents, and its "properties" are the folder properties. Files may have 
different shortcuts/symlinks, but these can be replaced by hard links, 
in many cases (NTFS...).

DoDi