New NTFS Linux Driver Being Improved For Windows Native Symbolic Links

One of the exciting additions to the Linux 7.1 kernel is the introduction of the new NTFS file-system kernel driver. While in good shape already and proving advantageous over other NTFS open-source driver options, one of the initial limitations on it is around Windows native symbolic link handling but that is now in the process of being resolved.

Windows native symbolic links is for handling symlinks at the file-system level compared to the conventional Windows .lnk shortcuts. The Windows native symbolic links is akin to the symlinks on other platforms for transparent symbolic link handling.

Open-source developer Hyunchul Lee today posted a set of patches in working on this native symbolic links support for the new NTFS driver. This allows parsing and following Windows native symbolic links, adding a new native_symlink=raw|rel mount option for configuring target resolution, and a symlink=wsl|native mount option for choosing between symlink creation behavior. Plus there are some other bug fixes and documentation additions for the NTFS driver.

See this patch series for those interested in the topic. Given the timing though it's unlikely it will make it for the upcoming Linux v7.2 cycle but likely diverted to another follow-on kernel cycle depending upon how the patch review proceeds.