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PA Installer Bug: Deletes NTFS Junctions Submitted by The MAZZTer on August 11, 2009 - 12:19pm
Well my previous topic seems to have disappeared when I went to update it so I guess I'll just post it again... if it was deleted it would be nice if someone would let me know (and why) so, y'know, I wouldn't make the same mistake. It's hard to learn from mistakes if you're not sure if it was a mistake to being with. Anyways, I use NTFS junctions to share common data files amongst my three Google Chrome Portable project folders so I don't have to keep them all in sync manually. It seems when I generate an installer with the PA Installer tool, any junction that contains Other\Source is deleted after the installer is generated. More specifically:
This is probably related somehow to the removal of PA Installer stock NSH and NSI files after the installer is generated. ( categories: )
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Don't Do That
Just don't use a junction point inside a portable app. The installer creates Other\Source as part of its functionality which, if it doesn't exist as a directory, is created. It does a standard API call to Windows to create the directory. Because it's a junction Windows doesn't understand what to do (since junctions are a poorly-implemented add-on to NTFS) and deletes the junction and creates a directory instead, thus ditching your junction. If you have a junction mapped to C:\junction and then you attempt to create a directory C:\junction, Windows will delete the junction and create the directory. Silly, huh?
I highly recommend against using junction at all, let alone in conjunction with portable apps.
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