ItemLinkManagement

Deprecation Notice

The module is merely a wrapper around PowerShell's built-in cmdlet New-Item to allow "overwriting" of existing junctions by removing existing ones before creation of replacement links regardless of PowerShell version. Everything else about link creation can already be achieved with New-Item -Force. As such, the module is now deprecated.

To create links without the module, first define links as spelt out here. Links can then be retrieved from definition files like so:

# Via .ps1 link definition file
$links = . "/path/to/links.ps1"

# Via .ps1 link definition file(s) within directory
$links = Get-ChildItem -Path "/path/to/links/" -File | ? { $_.Extension -eq '.ps1' } | Sort-Object | % { . $_.FullName }

Once retrieved, links can easily be created via following snippet:

# Create links
$links | % {
    try {
        "Path: '$($_.Path )', Value: '$($_.Value)', ItemType: '$($_.ItemType)'" | Write-Verbose
        $item = Get-Item -Path $_.Path -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        # New-Item with -Force cannot override an existing Junction, hence the need to remove the existing Link: Junction, SymbolicLink, or HardLink
        if ($item -And $_.ItemType -eq 'Junction') {
            if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -le 5) {
                $item.Delete() # Powershell 5 requires a special way to remove a SymbolicLink, see: https://stackoverflow.com/a/63172492
            }else {
                $item | Remove-Item -Force
            }
        }
        "Creating item '$($_.Path)'" | Write-Verbose
        New-Item -Path $_.Path -Value $_.Value -ItemType $_.ItemType -Force -Verbose
    }catch {
        $_ | Write-Error
    }
}

Alternatively, links can be retrieved and piped straight for creation without storing them in a variable:

# Via .ps1 link definition file
. "/path/to/links.ps1" | % {
    try {
        ...

# Via .ps1 link definition file(s) within directory
Get-ChildItem -Path "/path/to/links/" -File | ? { $_.Extension -eq '.ps1' } | Sort-Object | % { . $_.FullName } | % {
    try {
        ...

Introduction

A PowerShell module for managing hardlinks, junctions, and symbolic links.

Requirements

• Windows with PowerShell, or *nix with PowerShell Core.

Installation

First, ensure PSGallery is registered as a PowerShell repository:

Register-PSRepository -Default -Verbose

To install the module:

# Latest, for the current user
Install-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -Repository PSGallery -Scope CurrentUser -Verbose

# Specific version, for the current user
Install-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -Repository PSGallery -RequiredVersion x.x.x -Scope CurrentUser -Verbose

# Latest, for all users
Install-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -Repository PSGallery -Scope AllUsers -Verbose

Usage

Links

To create links, first define the properties of each link in .ps1 or .json file(s). Then feed the array of objects to New-ItemLink to create them non-interactively.

Sample definition files can be found here.

Functions

Parameters

New-ItemLink [-Path] <string> [-Value] <string> [-ItemType] {HardLink | Junction | SymbolicLink} [-Force] [<CommonParameters>]

Examples

# Hardlink
New-ItemLink -Path /path/of/link -Value /path/of/origin -ItemType Hardlink

# Junction
New-ItemLink -Path /path/of/link -Value /path/of/origin -ItemType Junction

# Symbolic link
New-ItemLink -Path /path/of/link -Value /path/of/origin -ItemType SymbolicLink

# Via definition objects
$links = . "/path/to/definition.ps1"
$links | % { New-ItemLink -Path $_.Path -ItemType $_.ItemType -Value $_.Value }

# Tips
## Specify `-Force` to overwrite existing links.
## Specify `-Verbose` for verbose output.

To list all available functions of the module:

Get-Command -Module ItemLinkManagement

Administration

Versions

To list versions of the module on PSGallery:

# Latest
Find-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -Repository PSGallery -Verbose

# All versions
Find-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -Repository PSGallery -AllVersions -Verbose

To update the module (Existing versions are left intact):

# Latest
Update-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -Verbose

# Specific version
Update-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -RequiredVersion x.x.x -Verbose

To uninstall the module:

# Latest
Uninstall-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -Verbose

# All versions
Uninstall-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -AllVersions -Verbose

# To uninstall all other versions other than x.x.x
Get-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -ListAvailable | ? { $_.Version -ne 'x.x.x' } | % { Uninstall-Module -Name $_.Name -RequiredVersion $_.Version -Verbose }

# Tip: Simulate uninstalls with -WhatIf

Repositories

To get all registered PowerShell repositories:

Get-PSRepository -Verbose

To set the installation policy for the PSGallery repository:

# PSGallery (trusted)
Set-PSRepository -Name PSGallery -InstallationPolicy Trusted -Verbose

# PSGallery (untrusted)
Set-PSRepository -Name PSGallery -InstallationPolicy Untrusted -Verbose

Development

To import / re-import the module:

# Installed version
Import-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -Force -Verbose

# Project version
Import-Module .\src\ItemLinkManagement\ItemLinkManagement.psm1 -Force -Verbose

To remove imported functions of the module:

Remove-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -Verbose

To list imported versions of the module:

Get-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement

To list all installed versions of the module available for import:

Get-Module -Name ItemLinkManagement -ListAvailable -Verbose