how to symlink in windows?

I run Apache HTTP server 2.0.49 on Win XP (for personal uses only). I
have several directories on my HD that I want to share on the web. I
don't want to create one alias (in httpd.conf) for each directory
because that would be a maintenance hassle. I thought I could link the
these several directories to one directory (by putting the shortcuts
to these several directories into one directory) and alias this single
directory instead. However, this doesn't work. When a directory
listing of the single shared directory is attempted the shortcuts are
listed (as files in the directory) instead of the directories they
point to. How would I simulate the symlink functionality of Unix/Linux
in Windows?

tom wrote:
> I run Apache HTTP server 2.0.49 on Win XP (for personal uses only). I
> have several directories on my HD that I want to share on the web. I
> don't want to create one alias (in httpd.conf) for each directory
> because that would be a maintenance hassle. I thought I could link the
> these several directories to one directory (by putting the shortcuts
> to these several directories into one directory) and alias this single
> directory instead. However, this doesn't work. When a directory
> listing of the single shared directory is attempted the shortcuts are
> listed (as files in the directory) instead of the directories they
> point to. How would I simulate the symlink functionality of Unix/Linux
> in Windows?

Why don't you install Services for Unix (SFU)? It is now a free download
from Microsoft. You can get it from
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/sfu/default.asp . If you do a link from
SFU, it should be visible from Apache as it installs a Reparse Point" in
the NTFS directory.

--
Jim Patterson
Ottawa, CANADA