Symbolic Links

Posts: 10 · w11maa 5 Oct 2012, 11:10

In the version 5.8 we have a problem with the handling of Symbolic links. The
settings (exclude,direct, follow) have no action on the compare and
synchronize result. If you choose exclude all existing files would be
synchronized and follow link generate an error code 1920, can not access the
file.
In the version 5.2 all settings working fine

Posts: 7210 · Zenju 5 Oct 2012, 11:59

Error code 1920 is ERROR_CANT_ACCESS_FILE, The file cannot be accessed by the
system. Your symlink seems to be broken.

Posts: 10 · w11maa 5 Oct 2012, 12:12

The link is working fine. If i open it manually or sync it with the
FreeFileSync v5.2 its works and the file will be replicated or i i choose the
setting exclude not showed in the tool.

Posts: 7210 · Zenju 5 Oct 2012, 15:05

http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/ln/ln.html
seems to suggest that ERROR_CANT_ACCESS_FILE could be due to XP not being able
to handle symlinks

Posts: 10 · w11maa 10 Oct 2012, 11:50

But what is the different of handling symlinks between the FreeFileSync V 5.2
and the newest?
Everything must be changed.

Posts: 7210 · Zenju 10 Oct 2012, 13:58

What error do you get when you set symlink handling to "direct"?

Posts: 10 · w11maa 11 Oct 2012, 11:02

The same error, cannot move ffs.tmp Error Code 1920 the file cannot accessed

Posts: 7210 · Zenju 11 Oct 2012, 11:28

Strange, there hasn't been any change in the last version concerning symlink
handling:
If you can reproduce your scenario, i.e. being able to create the symlink with
v5.2, but failure to do the same with v5.8, given the same configuration and
settings, I'd be interested in a Process Monitor
(http://technet.microsoft.com/de-de/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx)) comparison of the two runs.

Posts: 10 · w11maa 11 Oct 2012, 12:29

In which format do you want the data and how can i transmit it?

Posts: 7210 · Zenju 11 Oct 2012, 13:24

Process monitor saves as ".pml" files. These may be very large, so it could be
worthwhile to compress them. then just send them to my email address of post a
link here to some online file hoster.

Posts: 10 · w11maa 15 Oct 2012, 08:15

I sent it to your mailadress. I hope i chosse the right one

Posts: 7210 · Zenju 15 Oct 2012, 09:52

Can you describe a bit what you are doing in these log files? I assume the
link is "\\cherwsvfseu01\homeeu1\lhr8553\Helpdesk Dateien\Offerten\Verknüpfung
mit CPS_Admin_Guide_for_G2M3.0.pdf.lnk".
However I am not seing any links in FFSV58.PML.

Posts: 10 · w11maa 15 Oct 2012, 10:37

I try to synchronize archived files from a networkshare to the local disk.
That means, in the browser is only a link visible to the archive system and
during the synchronization process the file will recovered to the filesystem.
This action takes some seconds. Could it be that it is a timing problem?

Posts: 7210 · Zenju 15 Oct 2012, 11:17

What is the name of the symbolic link in both your test cases?

Posts: 10 · w11maa 15 Oct 2012, 12:16

Two .doc files called
Rwil-WETAG-Rupp-RW64-1.doc, Rwil-WETAG-SAP Schulung.doc

Posts: 7210 · Zenju 16 Oct 2012, 12:11

The two files you describe are not symlinks. This explains why the symlink
settings in FFS make no difference.

Rwil-WETAG-Rupp-RW64-1.doc:
- This file does not participate in the FFSv52 test case. It's probaby excluded.
- in the FFSv5.8 test case it is synced successfully, it is just a normal file, not a symlink:
Attributes: A

Rwil-WETAG-SAP Schulung.doc:
This is a sparse file with attributes:
a - archiv
sp - sparse
rp - reparse point
o - offline

There is a difference in the copy routine between v5.2 and v5.8 due to v5.3
feature "Preserve NTFS sparse files".
The file is copied as a sparse file in v5.8 and as I see from the log, this is
done successfully without any errors. However right at the end, it is deleted
but there is no error code in the log.
Do you see an error message in your test for this file? If so, please copy and
paste the (complete) error message here.

Posts: 10 · w11maa 17 Oct 2012, 07:16

This is the error which occured during the sync.
Cannot move file '%Filename%.ffs_tmp' to '%Filename%'.

Windows Error Code 1920: Das System kann auf die Datei nicht zugreifen.
If you press ignore the sync will be finished wiht error and no files are
synchronized

Posts: 7210 · Zenju 17 Oct 2012, 12:19

I assume "%Filename%" was inserted by you and is not a corruption of the error
message text?
So it seems only the "renaming" is causing trouble. Let's test this, go to
menu->global settings and disable "fail safe file copy". This will skip the
".ffs_tmp" files and directly create the target files with their final name.
Do you still see any errors?

Posts: 10 · w11maa 29 Oct 2012, 06:49

With the disbaled option "fail safe copy" no error occoures.

But the handling of the stublinks will not be correctly, if i choose the option "exclude" the links will be copied or if i set "follow" the links will be copied but if i try to open it the files are not completely there. i tried the same with the version 5.2 and the handling is correct.

Posts: 7210 · Zenju 29 Oct 2012, 12:20

If you are talking about "Rwil-WETAG-SAP Schulung.doc", this is not a symbolic link, so the symlink settings do not have any effect. It is however a sparse reparse point, that is not a name alias (= neither mount point nor symlink). Sparse files are copied differently in v5.8 using BackupRead/BackupWrite, so this copies the reparse data, too. For some reason, this causes the subsequent renaming "Rwil-WETAG-SAP Schulung.doc.ffs_tmp -> Rwil-WETAG-SAP Schulung.doc" to fail with Windows Error Code 1920.
This is probably triggered by the reparse data; could be a bug in the reparse data filter installed on your testing machine.