powershell to resolve junction target path

Question

In PowerShell, I need resolve the target path of a junction (symlink).

for example, say I have a junction c:\someJunction whose target is c:\temp\target

I tried variations of $junc = Get-Item c:\someJunction, but was only able to get c:\someJunction

How do I find the target path of the junction, in this example c:\temp\target, of a given junction?

Answer 1

New-Item, Remove-Item, and Get-ChildItem have been enhanced to support creating and managing symbolic links. The -ItemType parameter for New-Item accepts a new value, SymbolicLink. Now you can create symbolic links in a single line by running the New-Item cmdlet.

What's New in Windows PowerShell v5

I've checked the symlink support on the my Windows 7 machine, it's works fine.

PS> New-Item -Type SymbolicLink -Target C:\ -Name TestSymlink       Directory: C:\Users\skokhanovskiy\Desktop   Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name ----                -------------         ------ ---- d----l       06.09.2016     18:27                TestSymlink 

Get target of the symbolic link as easy as to create it.

> Get-Item .\TestSymlink | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Target C:\ 

Answer 2

There are some really complicated answers to this question! Here's a super simple and self explanatory one:

(Get-Item C:\somejunction).Target

Answer 3

You can get the path by doing the following:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\someJunction

Edit for finding the path and not the contents of the folder

Add-Type -MemberDefinition @"
private const int FILE_SHARE_READ = 1;
private const int FILE_SHARE_WRITE = 2;

private const int CREATION_DISPOSITION_OPEN_EXISTING = 3;
private const int FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS = 0x02000000;

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", EntryPoint = "GetFinalPathNameByHandleW", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true)]
 public static extern int GetFinalPathNameByHandle(IntPtr handle, [In, Out] StringBuilder path, int bufLen, int flags);

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", EntryPoint = "CreateFileW", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true)]
 public static extern SafeFileHandle CreateFile(string lpFileName, int dwDesiredAccess, int dwShareMode,
 IntPtr SecurityAttributes, int dwCreationDisposition, int dwFlagsAndAttributes, IntPtr hTemplateFile);

 public static string GetSymbolicLinkTarget(System.IO.DirectoryInfo symlink)
 {
     SafeFileHandle directoryHandle = CreateFile(symlink.FullName, 0, 2, System.IntPtr.Zero, CREATION_DISPOSITION_OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, System.IntPtr.Zero);
     if(directoryHandle.IsInvalid)
     throw new Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error());

     StringBuilder path = new StringBuilder(512);
     int size = GetFinalPathNameByHandle(directoryHandle.DangerousGetHandle(), path, path.Capacity, 0);
     if (size<0)
     throw new Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error());
     // The remarks section of GetFinalPathNameByHandle mentions the return being prefixed with "\\?\"
     // More information about "\\?\" here -> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247(v=VS.85).aspx
     if (path[0] == '\\' && path[1] == '\\' && path[2] == '?' && path[3] == '\\')
     return path.ToString().Substring(4);
     else
     return path.ToString();
 }
"@ -Name Win32 -NameSpace System -UsingNamespace System.Text,Microsoft.Win32.SafeHandles,System.ComponentModel

$dir = Get-Item D:\1
[System.Win32]::GetSymbolicLinkTarget($dir)