From 933e970b8ac654586bc3595f56b187fab65b1173 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Richard W.M. Jones" Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:23:17 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] ntfs-3g: Document problems with symlinks and alternatives (RHBZ#663407). --- src/guestfs.pod | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+) diff --git a/src/guestfs.pod b/src/guestfs.pod index 9cf66f3..bb90de8 100644 --- a/src/guestfs.pod +++ b/src/guestfs.pod @@ -587,6 +587,8 @@ documentation for that function for details). Libguestfs can mount NTFS partitions. It does this using the L driver. +=head3 DRIVE LETTERS AND PATHS + DOS and Windows still use drive letters, and the filesystems are always treated as case insensitive by Windows itself, and therefore you might find a Windows configuration file referring to a path like @@ -604,6 +606,8 @@ outside the scope of libguestfs, but something that you can easily do. Where we can help is in resolving the case insensitivity of paths. For this, call L. +=head3 ACCESSING THE WINDOWS REGISTRY + Libguestfs also provides some help for decoding Windows Registry "hive" files, through the library C which is part of the libguestfs project although ships as a separate tarball. You have to @@ -612,6 +616,33 @@ C functions. See also the programs L, L, L and L for more help on this issue. +=head3 SYMLINKS ON NTFS-3G FILESYSTEMS + +Ntfs-3g tries to rewrite "Junction Points" and NTFS "symbolic links" +to provide something which looks like a Linux symlink. The way it +tries to do the rewriting is described here: + +L + +The essential problem is that ntfs-3g simply does not have enough +information to do a correct job. NTFS links can contain drive letters +and references to external device GUIDs that ntfs-3g has no way of +resolving. It is almost certainly the case that libguestfs callers +should ignore what ntfs-3g does (ie. don't use L on +NTFS volumes). + +Instead if you encounter a symbolic link on an ntfs-3g filesystem, use +L to read the C extended +attribute, and read the raw reparse data from that (you can find the +format documented in various places around the web). + +=head3 EXTENDED ATTRIBUTES ON NTFS-3G FILESYSTEMS + +There are other useful extended attributes that can be read from +ntfs-3g filesystems (using L). See: + +L + =head2 USING LIBGUESTFS WITH OTHER PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES Although we don't want to discourage you from using the C API, we will -- 1.8.3.1