Junction and symbolic links.
In theory, the major difference is that the symbolic link can target a local or remote folder (UNC, via network share/SMB ) then that the junction is local disk only.
Used locally, I don't see any big difference on the practical side, except handling of disks by more or less specialized softs, in particular attention to the interpretation/follow up of these various links by a software of backup, with some one can risk either the double of backup or the omission of a complete tree structure.
However, when used in a network there is a big difference.
The symbolic link is processed by the client not the file server (NAS), it imposes some notable points :
- activate symbolic link processing "via network" on the client workstation, which is disabled by default on Windows workstations (only "local to local" and "local to network" links are enabled by default.
- This feature is not very / not usable by by clients using an SMB client not equipped with all the features (Mac/Linux), it is even more sensitive if you use SMB v2 or v3 and even more with DFS, so unless you are in client workstations 100% Windows Vista or +, you risk having client workstations that do not access everything.
- the target should be accessible to the client, it must be a UNC path whose name can be resolved and whose path contains the ACL needed for the client to access the target.
The NTFS file junction, on the other hand, is processed at the FS access level on the server, a junction placed in a share is seen or processed by the server, the client sees nothing special and accesses it just like an ordinary subfolder.
Personally, in local/local, I privilege the junction of file on the symbolic link, it is treated closer to the FS by the OS and less subject to bizarre behavior on the part of the softs which turn on the PC.
A bit (a lot) of good reading on these topics and a nice software to see/play with :
Link Shell Extension
http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html---------------------------------------------------------------
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