MySQL Bugs: #28753: wrong implementation of symbolic links on windows

Bug #28753	wrong implementation of symbolic links on windows
Submitted:	29 May 2007 16:01	Modified:	29 May 2007 16:21
Reporter:	Ömer Faruk Özer	Email Updates:
Status:	Verified	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: General	Severity:	S4 (Feature request)
Version:	5.0	OS:	Windows
Assigned to:		CPU Architecture:	Any
Tags:	symbolic link, windows

Description:
To use symbolic links for databases on Windows, you have to create a text file named database_name.sym and put the linked directory inside it. The documentation (section 2.3.15 MySQL on Windows Compared to MySQL on Unix) claims that Windows does not support symbolic links and therefore this pseudo symlink method is used.

Windows operating systems support symbolic links since Windows 2000. However, altough it is possible, there is neither a user interface nor a tool to create a symlink. You may use Platform API functions, Windows Support Tools or third party tools to create a symlink. 

Here is the link for a tool to create one:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/Junction.mspx

MySQL's way of using symlinks on Windows is inefficient (server has to open and read a file instead of direct access) and not robust.

How to repeat:
read description

Suggested fix:
Remove the current mechanism (.sym files) and update following sections of documentation accordingly:

2.3.15  MySQL on Windows Compared to MySQL on Unix
7.6.1.3 Using Symbolic Links for Databases on Windows

Thank you for a problem report. Sounds like a reasonable server feature request, that should be then documented.

Thank you for the bug report. This isn't a documentation bug since it has
what is currently implemented. I am changing this to feature request.