powershell to resolve junction target path

Question

In PowerShell, I need resolve the target path of a junction (symlink).

for example, say I have a junction c:\\someJunction whose target is c:\\te

Answer 1

It seems that with PS5 (as mentioned here or somewhere else?), system-defined junctions/reparse points have a bug whereas symlinks and user-defined junctions/reparse points do not. These solutions seem to work for symlinks but not junctions. The only thing that I could get to work to show the proper info was the fsutil program. The only issue is that it outputs data similar to Format-Hex as shown below.

The fsutil tool give me this output when used with the Windows Store app stored in $path

PS C:\> $path = "$($env:USERPROFILE)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\Skype.exe"
PS C:\> fsutil reparsepoint query $path
Reparse Data Length: 0x150
Reparse Data:
0000:  03 00 00 00 4d 00 69 00  63 00 72 00 6f 00 73 00  ....M.i.c.r.o.s.
0010:  6f 00 66 00 74 00 2e 00  53 00 6b 00 79 00 70 00  o.f.t...S.k.y.p.
0020:  65 00 41 00 70 00 70 00  5f 00 6b 00 7a 00 66 00  e.A.p.p._.k.z.f.
0030:  38 00 71 00 78 00 66 00  33 00 38 00 7a 00 67 00  8.q.x.f.3.8.z.g.
0040:  35 00 63 00 00 00 4d 00  69 00 63 00 72 00 6f 00  5.c...M.i.c.r.o.
0050:  73 00 6f 00 66 00 74 00  2e 00 53 00 6b 00 79 00  s.o.f.t...S.k.y.
0060:  70 00 65 00 41 00 70 00  70 00 5f 00 6b 00 7a 00  p.e.A.p.p._.k.z.
0070:  66 00 38 00 71 00 78 00  66 00 33 00 38 00 7a 00  f.8.q.x.f.3.8.z.
0080:  67 00 35 00 63 00 21 00  41 00 70 00 70 00 00 00  g.5.c.!.A.p.p...
0090:  43 00 3a 00 5c 00 50 00  72 00 6f 00 67 00 72 00  C.:.\.P.r.o.g.r.
00a0:  61 00 6d 00 20 00 46 00  69 00 6c 00 65 00 73 00  a.m. .F.i.l.e.s.
00b0:  5c 00 57 00 69 00 6e 00  64 00 6f 00 77 00 73 00  \.W.i.n.d.o.w.s.
00c0:  41 00 70 00 70 00 73 00  5c 00 4d 00 69 00 63 00  A.p.p.s.\.M.i.c.
00d0:  72 00 6f 00 73 00 6f 00  66 00 74 00 2e 00 53 00  r.o.s.o.f.t...S.
00e0:  6b 00 79 00 70 00 65 00  41 00 70 00 70 00 5f 00  k.y.p.e.A.p.p._.
00f0:  31 00 35 00 2e 00 36 00  34 00 2e 00 38 00 30 00  1.5...6.4...8.0.
0100:  2e 00 30 00 5f 00 78 00  38 00 36 00 5f 00 5f 00  ..0._.x.8.6._._.
0110:  6b 00 7a 00 66 00 38 00  71 00 78 00 66 00 33 00  k.z.f.8.q.x.f.3.
0120:  38 00 7a 00 67 00 35 00  63 00 5c 00 53 00 6b 00  8.z.g.5.c.\.S.k.
0130:  79 00 70 00 65 00 5c 00  53 00 6b 00 79 00 70 00  y.p.e.\.S.k.y.p.
0140:  65 00 2e 00 65 00 78 00  65 00 00 00 30 00 00 00  e...e.x.e...0...

OR

PS C:\> $path2 = "$HOME/My Documents"
PS C:\> fsutil reparsepoint query $path2
Reparse Tag Value : 0xa0000003
Tag value: Microsoft
Tag value: Name Surrogate
Tag value: Mount Point
Substitue Name offset: 0
Substitue Name length: 56
Print Name offset:     58
Print Name Length:     48
Substitute Name:       \??\C:\Users\chefh\Documents
Print Name:            C:\Users\chefh\Documents

Reparse Data Length: 0x74      
Reparse Data:
0000:  00 00 38 00 3a 00 30 00  5c 00 3f 00 3f 00 5c 00  ..8.:.0.\.?.?.\.
0010:  43 00 3a 00 5c 00 55 00  73 00 65 00 72 00 73 00  C.:.\.U.s.e.r.s.
0020:  5c 00 63 00 68 00 65 00  66 00 68 00 5c 00 44 00  \.c.h.e.f.h.\.D.
0030:  6f 00 63 00 75 00 6d 00  65 00 6e 00 74 00 73 00  o.c.u.m.e.n.t.s.
0040:  00 00 43 00 3a 00 5c 00  55 00 73 00 65 00 72 00  ..C.:.\.U.s.e.r.
0050:  73 00 5c 00 63 00 68 00  65 00 66 00 68 00 5c 00  s.\.c.h.e.f.h.\.
0060:  44 00 6f 00 63 00 75 00  6d 00 65 00 6e 00 74 00  D.o.c.u.m.e.n.t.
0070:  73 00 00 00                                       s...

Here is the code that I came up with to parse that output. I know that it is quite messy code, but as I said I couldn't get the other solutions here to work for Windows Stores apps. This one does. Please test it in your uses and mention if there are issues.

***** Edited to allow files or directories. *****

$path = "$($env:USERPROFILE)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\Skype.exe"
$path2 = "$HOME/My Documents"

function Get-ReparseTarget ($path)
{
    #   Grabs output of fsutil
    $a = fsutil reparsepoint query $path

    #   Regex to capture fsutil output
    $regex = '[0-9a-fA-F]+\:\s\s(?([0-9a-fA-F]{2}\s){1,8}\s)(?([0-9a-fA-F]{2}\s){1,8}\s){0,1}.+'

    #   Splits and trims the "chunks" then adds them together to create an array of hex character
    $c = $a.foreach({if ($_ -match $regex) {($Matches['chunk1'] -split ' ').trim() | `
        where {$_ -ne ""};($Matches['chunk2'] -split ' ').trim() |where {$_ -ne ""}}})

    #   Convert an Array of Hex(String) to Array of Bytes
    $f = [byte[]]($c | foreach{[Convert]::ToInt32($_,16)})

    #   Convert the Unicode to Ascii and convert '' (00 in hex) to spaces
    $g = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetChars($f).foreach({if([int]$_ -eq 0) {' '} else {$_}})

    #   Combine Char[] to String then Split into the important bits and Select the Reparse Target Path 
    #   depending on whether the Path argument is a file or directory
    switch ((get-item -Force -Path $path))
    {
        {$_ -is [System.IO.FileInfo]} {$h = ($g[0..($g.Count -4)] -join "" -split " ", 4)[3]}
        {$_ -is [System.IO.DirectoryInfo]} {$h = ($g[0..($g.Count -2)] -join "" -split " ", 3)[2]}
        Default { Write-Error "Path must be either a file or directory"}
    }

    #   Return the path
    return $h
}

#  Quick Test
Get-ReparseTarget -path $path
Get-ReparseTarget -path $path2


# Input:
#   $path = "$($env:USERPROFILE)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\Skype.exe"
# Run:
#   Get-ReparseTarget $path
# Returns:
#   C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.SkypeApp_15.64.80.0_x86__kzf8qxf38zg5c\Skype\Skype.exe

# Input:
#   $path2 = "$HOME/My Documents"
# Run:
#   Get-ReparseTarget $path2
# Returns:
#   C:\Users\chefh\Documents