Symbolic linking in an SMB share?

Question

I have read/write access to an SMB share, but I do not have access to the box itself. My end goal is to create a symbolic link of some sort inside the share to another share, so that other devices connected can access the share. My problem is that the devices I have connected to the share have a hard coded reference to the shares and I cannot add anymore ... e.g., they only see this:

\\networkshare1\videos

And I have:

\\networkshare2\videos

I do not have anything besides file system access to networkshare1, but I do have full permissions for the folders.

I'd like to have something like:

\\networkshare1\videos\folderlink

And if you hit that directory the networkshare2 videos folder is exposed.

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 05 '23 at 04:21

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In Windows you are not allowed to create symbolic links for network shares, But instead you can create "Desktop shortcut"

answered Apr 05 '23 at 04:21

jovenb

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Are you sure about that statement? I mean, you can create a drive mapping to a network share and create a symbolic link to that location, isn't it? – Dominique Apr 05 '23 at 06:35
Welcome to SuperUser! Where did you read this?As far as I know this is not true, you just need elevated rights to do so. – DarkDiamond Apr 05 '23 at 06:44

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 03 '13 at 17:47

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Symbolic links to network shares are not allowed.

answered Oct 03 '13 at 17:47

Alexey Ivanov

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Is there anyway I can achieve my end result, without symbolic links? – chum of chance Oct 03 '13 at 17:48
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@chumofchance I don't know for sure. It may be possible using [DFS, Distributed File System](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_File_System_(Microsoft)). – Alexey Ivanov Oct 03 '13 at 17:55
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@AlexeyIvanov [Actually they are allowed](http://superuser.com/a/637887/25625), just not by default. – Scott Chamberlain Oct 03 '13 at 18:25

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 03 '13 at 18:33

if you can create a symlink to the actual disk location instead of the share, you can set 'follow symlinks = yes ' in your smb.conf, and it will work. I have my nas set up the same way, so that content from multiple disks can be exposed via a single share.

if you can't acutally create the symlink on the server, then you will have to try Scott Chamberlain's advice above.

http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/manpages-3/smb.conf.5.html

Symbolic linking in an SMB share?

3 Answers3