Parsing Shortcuts in Powershell

Question

I have some code which is trying to make a copy of a directory which contains shortcuts:

 # Create a directory to store the files in
 mkdir "D:\backup-temp\website.com files\"

 # Search for shortcuts so that we can exclude them from the copy
 $DirLinks = Get-ChildItem "\\web1\c$\Web Sites\website\" -Recurse | ? { $_.Attributes -like "*ReparsePoint*" } | % { $_.FullName } 

 # Execute the copy
 cp -recurse -Exclude $DirLinks "\\web1\c$\Web Sites\website\*" "D:\backup-temp\website.com files\"

But when I execute the script I get the following error:

 Copy-Item : The symbolic link cannot be followed because its type is disabled.
 At C:\scripts\backup.ps1:16 char:3
 + cp <<<<  -recurse "\\web1\c$\Web Sites\website\*" "D:\backup-temp\website.com files\"
     + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Copy-Item], IOException
     + FullyQualifiedErrorId :          
 System.IO.IOException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.CopyItemCommand

It seems the script is getting hung up on a symbolic link (I'm assuming the shortcut) that I'm trying to exclude in the fourth line of the script.

How can I tell powershell to ignore/exclude shortcuts?

Thanks, Brad

Which version of PowerShell?

Keith Hill
– Keith Hill

2014-02-02 21:51:06 +00:00
Commented Feb 2, 2014 at 21:51 — Keith Hill
– Keith Hill, Commented Feb 2, 2014 at 21:51
Powershell version 2.

Brad
– Brad

2014-02-02 23:50:46 +00:00
Commented Feb 2, 2014 at 23:50 — Brad
– Brad, Commented Feb 2, 2014 at 23:50

Keith Hill · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-03 03:06:03Z

4

If you are on V3 or higher you can eliminate the reparse points like so:

Get-ChildItem "\\web1\c$\Web Sites\website" -Recurse -Attributes !ReparsePoint | 
    Copy-Item -Dest "D:\backup-temp\website.com files"

On V1/V2 you can do this:

Get-ChildItem "\\web1\c$\Web Sites\website" |
    Where {!($_.Attributes -bor [IO.FileAttributes]::ReparsePoint)} |
    Copy-Item -Dest "D:\backup-temp\website.com files" -Recurse

edited Feb 3, 2014 at 3:06

answered Feb 2, 2014 at 22:00

Keith Hill

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6 Comments

Brad Over a year ago

I used the code for v1/v2 above and it seems to produce the same error: Get-ChildItem : The symbolic link cannot be followed because its type is disabled.

Keith Hill Over a year ago

@Brad See if the updated answer helps any. With the recurse on the Get-ChildItem, it may have been trying to copy files under a ReparsePoint. Don't remember if those files would have that attribute set.

Brad Over a year ago

Removing -recurse seems to result in no error - but no files being copied either :)

Brad Over a year ago

Adding -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue seems to suppress the error and the code will work with -recurse. But I can't believe there isn't a better way of doing this?

Brad Over a year ago

Actually I lied. -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue allows the script to exit cleanly without an error but it does actually halt the file copy process. So that's not a viable option :(

|

Brad · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-03 15:58:57Z

1

So it turns out that the issue I faces is explained in this Microsoft Blog Post: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/junfeng/archive/2012/05/07/the-symbolic-link-cannot-be-followed-because-its-type-is-disabled.aspx

Essentially on the server I am running the powershell script from I needed to run the following command: fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation R2R:1

This allows Remote to remote symbolic links. Once this is in place the above powershell commands run as expected without errors.

answered Feb 3, 2014 at 15:58

Brad

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