CODEWITHSUNDEEP
batch-filesymlink
lcdavis13
lcdavis13

Reputation: 119

Creating symlinks with modified path in batch script?

The idea behind this question is simple but I'm new to batch scripts so the nuances are making it impossible for me. I need to create a set of symlinks to replicate the contents of several source directories, which share a common parent directory, into a target directory. Example:

SrcDirParent
    SrcDirA
       FileA
    SrcDirB
       FileB
       SubDir
          FileC

Which using symlinks should create:

DstDir
    FileA ~
    FileB ~
    SubDir
        FileC ~

Using ~ to show a symbolic link. SrcDirParent and DstDir are read as absolute paths from an external file. I don't know what files/folders will be in SrcDirParent, and some of the relevant directories might already exist in DstDir while others do not. If they do exist, I need to merge the symlinks with the existing content.

The barrier that I'm currently hitting is with th filepaths. I planned to use two for loops like this:

for /d %%M in (%SRC%\*) do (
    for /r %%F in (%SRC%\%%M\*) do (
        mklink %DST%\%%F %SRC%\%%M\%%F
    )
)

But this requires relative filepaths for %%M and %%F and these variables are being filled with absolute paths. I'm not sure how to fix that.

Another issue that I'm anticipating is when the SRC and DST have conflicting filepaths - I don't want to overwrite existing paths with symlinks.

Hope this was the right place to post this. Thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 193

Answers (1)

lcdavis13
lcdavis13

Reputation: 119

After much trial and error, I found a solution:

setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

for /d %%M in (%SRC%\*) do (
    pushd %%M
    for /r %%F in (*) do (

        set temp1=%%F
        set temp2=!temp1:%%M=!
        set temp3=!temp2:%%~nxF=!

        if not exist "%DST%!temp3!" (
            mkdir "%DST%!temp3!"
        )

        mklink "%DST%!temp2!" %%F 
    )
    popd %%M
)

It uses "pushd" and "popd" to change the directory for the inner loop, "!string:find=replace!" for modifying the directory names, "exist" to check for existing folders before creating a new one, and "EnableDelayedExpansion" to make all the string operations work correctly. Assumes you have SRC and DST variables set already.

Upvotes: 0

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