cannot follow symlinks in shared folder

[jamme]

I'm running an xubuntu guest on a windows 7 host. VirtualBox 4.3.16 I have setup a shared-folders and it work fine.

I need to access from Host machine to /var/www folder on Guest machine.

So i have make a symlink in xubuntu: ln -s /var/www /media/sf_SHARED

it work fine on Guest but from Host machine (Win7) i cannot follow this link

the error msg is: Filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect

[Frank Mehnert]

Symlinks are disabled on shared folders by default. If you enabled it by tweaking the extradata, then it will IMO still not work because the symbolic link will link to the file in the guest which is not accessible from the outside. You cannot access a guest file by using a symbolic link which points to any file outside that shared folder.

[jamme]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that i have already enabled symlinks

VBoxManage setextradata MYVMNAME VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate/MYSHAREFOLDERNAME 1

I have already grant permissions on Host machine (Windows 7)

fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation L2L:1 R2R:1 L2R:1 R2L:1

and with secpol.msc grant permission on "Create symbolic links"

[jamme]

So it's simply impossible to do this or is there an alternative way?

[Klaus Espenlaub]

It's impossible. A shared folder is provided by the host, and if a guest (with symlink support enabled) creates a symlink to "its" /var/www, it doesn't magically become a shared folder provider for the host. The host will interpret the symlink locally, and as it is most likely not making sense, you're getting the error message.