Programming Considerations

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Keep the following programming considerations in mind when working with symbolic links:

  • Symbolic links can point to a non-existent target.
  • When creating a symbolic link, the operating system does not check to see if the target exists.
  • If an application tries to open a non-existent target, ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND is returned.
  • Symbolic links are reparse points. For more information, see Determining Whether a Directory Is a Mounted Folder.
  • There is a maximum of 31 reparse points (and therefore symbolic links) allowed in a particular path.

Hard Links and Junctions