Windows guests don't follow symlinks on shared folders -> Fixed in SVN/3.1.4

[sorcerer]

With VirtualBox 3.1.0 Windows XP guests don't follow symlinks in shared folders if hostmachine is Linux. Windows think that the symlinks is regular files.

[sorcerer]

I use the latest Ubuntu 9.10 on amd64 and VirtualBox build from the corresponding virtualbox.org repository.

[krystian]

I have the same behavior with an OS X (10.6.2) host and a Windows XP SP3 guest.

[micsa]

I can confirm this bug, I'm using Linux 64-bit host and WinXP guest. The symlinks to directories in the shared folders are treated as files, but entering them is possible only explicitly with "cd folder" command.

[alphazo]

Confirmed on ArchLinux 32-bit (last update done on Dec 02) host and Windows XP SP3 guest.

[herberth]

Confirmed on Ubuntu 9.04, 32-bit host and winXP guest.

[sigdrifa@zoho.com]

I can confirm this as well on Ubuntu 9.10 64 bit host. However, the problem is not unique to Windows guests. I have an Ubuntu 9.10 and a Linux Mint (both 32bit) guest with the same problem. And unlike micsa, I can't cd into them from the command line in either of the Linux guests.

[Ralf Jung]

I can confirm this regression with VirtualBox 3.1 on Kubuntu 9.10 (32bit) and with a Windows XP SP3 (32bit) guest.

For Linux guests, the issue seems to be different - symlinks in Shared folders are not at all supported: ​http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/818 . But unlike this problem, that is not a regression.

[sigdrifa@zoho.com]

Replying to ralf:

For Linux guests, the issue seems to be different - symlinks in Shared folders are not at all supported: ​http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/818 .

It used to work before I upgraded to 3.1.0, though.

[Ralf Jung]

Ah, ok... the other bug is invalid or at least not completely up-to-date then. Sorry.

[me999]

Confirmed with VirtualBox 3.1.0 r55467, Fedora 12 host (32-bit) and Windows Vista SP2 guest (32-bit). I have a symbolic link in a shared folder that points to a directory outside of the shared folder. In the guest system, it appears as a file that cannot be opened. cd'ing to the link/file in the command prompt does work however. This problem did not occur before upgrade to 3.1.

[sorcerer]

Fix for VirtualBox 3.1.0_OSE

[sorcerer]

Please see my fix of the bug for OSE.

[sorcerer]

Note that this patch won't work correctly with symlinks to non-directories.

[sorcerer]

Patch fixes incorrect memory usage (corrected)

[sorcerer]

Use symlinks.2.patch instead of symlinks.patch. The second patch works correctly with symlinks to all file types.

[davenz]

I see the same thing on an Opensolaris snv_128a x64 host, but using Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10 guests - I confirm this isn't confined to Windows guests as another poster has advised.

[sunlover]

The problem already fixed in SVN, see ​http://www.virtualbox.org/changeset/25292 The fix will be available in the next maintenance release (3.1.2).