The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for 2016

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It Was Never Going to Work, So Let’s Have Some Tea on Vimeo

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/02/03

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

ElectriFly | SafeCharge LiPo Battery Charge Bag

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/02/02

http://www.electrifly.com/miscproducts/gpmp0751.html

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

I don’t care about cookies

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/02/02

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/i-dont-care-about-cookies/fihnjjcciajhdojfnbdddfaoknhalnja

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Windows: removing file and directory reparse points (symbolic links, directory links, junctions, hard links)

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/02/02

The interwebs is full of posts telling about how to create file and directory junctions**.

But there is little information about removing them and even less being correct: some suggest to del a directory junction (which just deletes everything in it but the junction).

Finally there is little information about listing all junctions, so lets start with that:

Deleting a link depends on the kind of link, not the kind of source.

Since symlink and hardlinks are for files, and directory symlink and junctions are for directories, this is how:

  • Delete a file symlink or hardlink by using DEL.
  • Delete a directory symlink or junction using RMDIR.

SysInternals – I wrote about them before – has a great junction tool. It can be used to create, delete and (optionally recursively) list reparse points. All usages allow for file and directory junctions.

More about reparse points

This is about the **: actually they are reparse points; for files they are symlinks, for directories mostly junctions, but sometimes symlinks.

And actually the reason I wrote this blog post. As you also have hardlinks. Some combinations of files and directories with these kinds of links fail.

Lets first go to see what kind of links there are on a fresh Windows system.

This is the only directory symlink: C:\Users\All Users and junction will show it like this:

.\\?\C:\\Users\All Users: SYMBOLIC LINK
   Print Name     : C:\ProgramData
   Substitute Name: \??\C:\ProgramData

It is unlike this directory junction C:\Users\Default User which junction will show as this:

\\?\C:\\Users\Default User: JUNCTION
   Print Name     : C:\Users\Default
   Substitute Name: C:\Users\Default

Together with C:\Users\Default and C:\Users\desktop.ini they are hidden, so you need the /AH flag to show them using DIR (as a gist, since WordPress still screws up less than and greater than):


Directory of C:\Users
08/22/2013 04:45 PM <SYMLINKD> All Users [C:\ProgramData]
09/30/2013 06:27 AM <DIR> Default
08/22/2013 04:45 PM <JUNCTION> Default User [C:\Users\Default]
08/22/2013 05:34 PM 174 desktop.ini

view raw

show-hidden-files-in-users.bat

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

When you look at the examples below, it is odd to see that C:\Users\All Users is a SYMLINK and not a SYMLINKD as it points to a directory.

And yes, there are not so and very subtle differences between SYMLINKD and JUNCTION.

Lets show some examples.

The examples are hopefully more complete than the complete guide.

Since symlinks are client side created and not verified until use, you can actually use mklink to create both file and directory symbolic links for a file. DIR shows them as SYMLINK or SYMLINKD.

A SYMLINK to a file actually works, but a SYMLINKD or JUNCTION to a file gives you an Access Denied error. Hardlinks get the attributes of the source (so delete hidden hardlinks using the DEL /AH option).

Example batch file:

view raw

show-mklink-symlink-symlinkd-junction-junction-hardlink-on-file.bat

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Example output:

view raw

show-mklink-symlink-symlinkd-junction-junction-hardlink-on-file.bat.txt

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

When you try this for directories, you are in for a few small surprises.

A SYMLINK to a directory neither works as file nor as directory. A SYMLINKD or JUNCTION to a directory works. Hardlinks don’t work for directories with reason: limit the risk of cycles.

Example batch file:

view raw

show-mklink-symlink-symlinkd-junction-junction-hardlink-on-file.bat

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Example output:

view raw

show-mklink-symlink-symlinkd-junction-junction-hardlink-on-file.bat.txt

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Conclusion

  • symlink and hardlink can be used as files, but not as directories.
  • files referenced through symlinkd and junction behave as empty directories.
  • symlinkd and junction can be used as directories, but not as files.
  • directories referenced as symlink are not usable.
  • directories cannot function as hardlink source.
  • hardlinks to files inherited their attributes.

–jeroen

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Scripting, Software Development | 2 Comments »

Short Date Format Fix For Google Calendar™ – Chrome Web Store: from mm/dd to dd/mm.

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/02/01

You can set the long date format in Google Calendar, but not the short date format. This plugin does:

Changes the short date format in Google Calendar from [month]/[day] to [day]/[month] or the other way around.

It fixes this long standing bug: formatting – How do I change date format at top of day in Google Calendar? – Web Applications Stack Exchange which was reported in at least these places:

Source: Short Date Format Fix For Google Calendar™ – Chrome Web Store

–jeroen

Posted in Google, GoogleCalendar, Power User | Leave a Comment »

VPN over HTTPS: Ultimate Powerful VPN Connectivity – SoftEther VPN Project

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/02/01

This is cool, as it allows to run VPN over HTTPS or even over ICMP or DNS. Impressive: 1. Ultimate Powerful VPN Connectivity – SoftEther VPN Project.

Equally impressive is the range of operating systems covered:

  • Windows (98 until Server 20012 with x86 and x64 implementations).
  • Linux Kernels 2.4, 2.6 and 3.x on Intel x86, x64, ARM, MIPS and PowerPC platforms.
  • FreeBSD 5.x, 6.x, 7.x, 8.x and 9.x are supported on Intel x86 and x64 platforms.
  • Solaris 8, 9, 10 and 11 on Intel x86, Intel x64, SPARC (both 32 bit and 64 bit) platforms.
  • Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8 on Intel x86, Intel x64, PowerPC (32 bit) and PowerPC G5 (64 bit) platforms.

–jeroen

Posted in Network-and-equipment, Power User, VPN | Leave a Comment »

Bash Coding Style · drwetter/testssl.sh Wiki

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/01/31

Awesome read on bash Coding Style · drwetter/testssl.sh Wiki

Posted in bash, Development, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Mac: Google Chrome Helper excessive CPU usage

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/01/29

I’m not the only one with a Mac having issues with Google Chrome Helper CPU usage, but most of the entries are for older Chrome versions. So below are the steps I performed. There are also pros and cons are after the steps.

In chrome://settings/content, under “Plugins”, I ticked “Let me choose when to run plugin content” (it was at “Detect and run important plugin content (recommended)”. That dialog doesn’t allow you to copy it’s content, so no HTML, just this screenshot:

In chrome://plugins/ I disabled this one:

Adobe Flash Player – Version: 20.0.0.267 (Disabled)

Shockwave Flash 20.0 r0
Name: Shockwave Flash
Description: Shockwave Flash 20.0 r0
Version: 20.0.0.267
Location: /Users/jeroenp/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/PepperFlash/20.0.0.267/PepperFlashPlayer.plugin
Type: PPAPI (out-of-process)
MIME types:
MIME type Description File extensions
application/x-shockwave-flash Shockwave Flash
.swf
application/futuresplash Shockwave Flash
.spl
Enable Always allowed to run

Pros of these settings:

  • If you have a lot of tabs open (many of them suspended using The Great Suspender), then Google Chrome Helper uses far less CPU.
  • Youtube doesn’t use the Flash Player any more. It now uses HTML5 which seems far more battery friendly and more responsive.

Cons of these settings:

 

–jeroen

Posted in Apple, Chrome, Google, Mac, MacBook, MacBook Retina, PDF, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Avast blog » How do I access the avast! Virus Chest?

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/01/29

They hide this quarantine area too well…

Avast blog » How do I access the avast! Virus Chest?.

Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »

Some more tf.exe related batch files for managing workspaces – via: Find an installed tf.exe, then run it with the command-line parameters specified. « The Wiert Corner

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/01/28

As part of some TFS related posts, I wrote about Find an installed tf.exe, then run it with the command-line parameters specified.

Below are some more batch files related to this. In each batch file, you can replace tf with call "%~dp0tf.bat" so the above batch file is executed first.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Scripting, Source Code Management, TFS (Team Foundation System) | Leave a Comment »

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