Enable native NTFS symbolic links for Cygwin

Question

Recent NTFS and Windows implement symlinks:

• NTFS junction point can be used as directory symlink since NTFS 3.0 (Windows 2000) using linkd or

Answer 1

Since @olibre answer didn't work for me. I just created a shell function.

: '
mklink - Create NTFS (Windows) links that is usable by Windows and Cygwin

Usage: mklink [/D | /H | /J]  

Options:
    /D    Directory Symbolic Link
    /H    Hardlink
    /J    Directory Junction (you should prefer /D)

With no options, it creates a NTFS file symlink.
'
mklink () {

    if [ "$#" -ge "3" ]; then
        cmd /c mklink "$1" "$(cygpath --windows --absolute "$2")" "$(cygpath --windows --absolute "$3")"
    else
        cmd /c mklink "$(cygpath --windows --absolute "$1")" "$(cygpath --windows --absolute "$2")"
    fi

}

Do note you need administrator permissions (for Cygwin) to run the above without problems.

Note that I am unaware whether there's any difference between symlinking to an absolute path versus symlinking to a relative path using CMD's mklink. On Linux, those 2 have different behaviours if you ever decide to move the symlink or move the target file, or move both.