Unable to commit Symlink files for dispatcher from windows

[georhe6]

Hi Team,

I am unable to commit symlink created for enabled_Vhost and enabled_Farms from windows machine.
I tried using WSL also but the symlink files are not listing at all. How to resolve this issue.

AEM as CS, Dispatcher , symlink

[arunpatidar · Accepted solution]

Hi @georhe6 
Please check if this helps
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/wiki/Symbolic-Links#creating-symbolic-links 

[MeasurableBusinessResults]

Given that this is so cumbersome (I have the same issue in a Windows box without admin priviledges right now),
and that symbolic links are not really cross-platform compatible (as described in the link you shared: https://gitforwindows.org/symbolic-links.html )
and that this whole approach of soft-linking available configs to an enabled configs folder is a historic Apache legacy, and MAY make sense on a manually managed server, but in a modern CI/CD devops setup does not make any sense at all imho - because I will not have disabled unused configs lying around on my servers, I will only have active ones, so always available == enabled,

Why not get rid of the "available" folder completely, and just put the actual files in "enabled"?
No need for redundant symlinks anymore...

So the main question is: while Adobe AEM product dev team may need some time to come to the same conclusion, in the meantime can I just put files into "enabled" folder directly if I want to, or will the webtier pipeline complain and fail with an error?

[arunpatidar]

Hi @MeasurableBusinessResults 

Please check below for folder structure and how to create symlinks in Windows

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-cloud-service/content/implementing/con...

Unfortunately you can't put files into "enabled" folder directly.

[MeasurableBusinessResults]

Hi Arun,

unfortunately your answer is wrong. It's possible to put the actual files into the "enabled" Folder directly. The pipeline log prints a warning, but continues and it works.

[arunpatidar]

Hi @MeasurableBusinessResults 

Maybe its working now but I would suggest to follow the recommendation from Adobe. There might be a reason why adobe suggested using this approach.

for more clarity you may open Adobe Support ticket. 

[arunpatidar]

Windows symlink example at https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/adobe-experience-manager/migration-dispatcher-issue... 

[Tethich]

Hi @georhe6 

I believe you can recreate them or instruct git to allow them (symlinks = true)

😞https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-learn/ams/dispatcher/git-symlinks
https://gist.github.com/huenisys/1efb64e57c37cfab7054c65702588fce

Try to see if any of these two links leads you to a fix.

[giuseppebaglio]

To address the issue at hand, it is important to follow a systematic approach. Here are the steps to consider for resolving the matter:

1. Enable symlink support in Git

git config --global core.symlinks true​

• Create symlinks with elevated privileges using mklink from Command Prompt or PowerShell as an Administrator:

mklink enabled_Vhost path\to\target\Vhost
mklink enabled_Farms path\to\target\Farms​

• Verify (git status) and commit (git add then git commit) the symlinks using Git for Windows.
• Avoid mixing WSL and Windows-native tools for symlink management. If you’re using WSL, note that symlinks created in WSL most likely will not be compatible with Windows-native tools like Git for Windows. To avoid this:
  • Ensure that the symlinks are created in the Windows file system (not inside the WSL-specific file system).
  • Use Git for Windows to manage the repository instead of WSL’s Git.

[kautuk_sahni]

@georhe6 Did you find the suggestions helpful? Please let us know if you need more information. If a response worked, kindly mark it as correct for posterity; alternatively, if you found a solution yourself, we’d appreciate it if you could share it with the community. Thank you!