Creating hard and soft links using PowerShell

262
votes

Can PowerShell 1.0 create hard and soft links analogous to the Unix variety?

If this isn't built in, can someone point me to a site that has a ps1 script that mimics this?

This is a necessary function of any good shell, IMHO. :)

11
powershellsymlink
Windows 10 users see stackoverflow.com/a/34905638/195755 . Windows 10 it is built-in. Copy/Paste: New-Item -Type and press tab to cycle through the options. Hardlink, SymbolicLink, and Junction appear for me. Works Win 10, Server 2016+, or older OS with Powershell 5.0+ installed via Windows Management Framework 5.0+. – yzorg
I can't find decent MSDN/TechNet documentation for New-Item -Type HardLink nor New-Item -Type SymbolicLink. New-Item docs link to help about_Providers, it suggests you read help for each provider (which isn't linked). But if you google it there is plenty of buzz in the PowerShell community around New-Item -Type HardLink. It looks like the PowerShell engineering team has come up with provider extension points that stump the docs team. – yzorg
WARNING! -- While it is very easy to create hardlinks, it may be quite a challenge to remove them securely. That is because the tools are not easily available in native Powershell while Windows like to lock file access and keep files in memory (thus not always removable without a reboot.) Please see my post here. – not2qubit

11 Answers

274
votes

You can call the mklink provided by cmd, from PowerShell to make symbolic links:

cmd /c mklink c:\path\to\symlink c:\target\file

You must pass /d to mklink if the target is a directory.

cmd /c mklink /d c:\path\to\symlink c:\target\directory

For hard links, I suggest something like Sysinternals Junction.

320
votes

Windows 10 (and Powershell 5.0 in general) allows you to create symbolic links via the New-Item cmdlet.

Usage:

New-Item -Path C:\LinkDir -ItemType SymbolicLink -Value F:\RealDir

Or in your profile:

function make-link ($target, $link) {
    New-Item -Path $link -ItemType SymbolicLink -Value $target
}

Turn on Developer Mode to not require admin privileges when making links with New-Item:

enter image description here

43
votes

Add "pscx" module

No, it isn't built into PowerShell. And the mklink utility cannot be called on its own on Windows Vista/Windows 7 because it is built directly into cmd.exe as an "internal command".

You can use the PowerShell Community Extensions (free). There are several cmdlets for reparse points of various types:

  • New-HardLink,
  • New-SymLink,
  • New-Junction,
  • Remove-ReparsePoint
  • and others.
24
votes

In Windows 7, the command is

fsutil hardlink create new-file existing-file

PowerShell finds it without the full path (c:\Windows\system32) or extension (.exe).

15
votes

New-Symlink:

Function New-SymLink ($link, $target)
{
    if (test-path -pathtype container $target)
    {
        $command = "cmd /c mklink /d"
    }
    else
    {
        $command = "cmd /c mklink"
    }

    invoke-expression "$command $link $target"
}

Remove-Symlink:

Function Remove-SymLink ($link)
{
    if (test-path -pathtype container $link)
    {
        $command = "cmd /c rmdir"
    }
    else
    {
        $command = "cmd /c del"
    }

    invoke-expression "$command $link"
}

Usage:

New-Symlink "c:\foo\bar" "c:\foo\baz"
Remove-Symlink "c:\foo\bar"
10
votes

Try junction.exe

The Junction command line utility from SysInternals makes creating and deleting junctions easy.

Further reading

  • MS Terminology: soft != symbolic
    Microsoft uses "soft link" as another name for "junction".
    However: a "symbolic link" is something else entirely.
    See MSDN: Hard Links and Junctions in Windows.
    (This is in direct contradiction to the general usage of those terms where "soft link" and "symbolic link" ("symlink") DO mean the same thing.)
5
votes

You can use this utility: 

c:\Windows\system32\fsutil.exe create hardlink
5
votes

I combined two answers (@bviktor and @jocassid). It was tested on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012.

function New-SymLink ($link, $target)
{
    if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -ge 5)
    {
        New-Item -Path $link -ItemType SymbolicLink -Value $target
    }
    else
    {
        $command = "cmd /c mklink /d"
        invoke-expression "$command ""$link"" ""$target"""
    }
}
3
votes

I wrote a PowerShell module that has native wrappers for MKLINK. https://gist.github.com/2891103

Includes functions for:

  • New-Symlink
  • New-HardLink
  • New-Junction

Captures the MKLINK output and throws proper PowerShell errors when necessary.

1
votes

Actually, the Sysinternals junction command only works with directories (don't ask me why), so it can't hardlink files. I would go with cmd /c mklink for soft links (I can't figure why it's not supported directly by PowerShell), or fsutil for hardlinks.

If you need it to work on Windows XP, I do not know of anything other than Sysinternals junction, so you might be limited to directories.

-2
votes

I found this the simple way without external help. Yes, it uses an archaic DOS command but it works, it's easy, and it's clear.

$target = cmd /c dir /a:l | ? { $_ -match "mySymLink \[.*\]$" } | % `
{
    $_.Split([char[]] @( '[', ']' ), [StringSplitOptions]::RemoveEmptyEntries)[1]
}

This uses the DOS dir command to find all entries with the symbolic link attribute, filters on the specific link name followed by target "[]" brackets, and for each - presumably one - extracts just the target string.