Clarify that AppX reparse points do not support listing their targets anymore in v7.2+

[mklement0]

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Links

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_FileSystem_Provider?view=powershell-7.4

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_FileSystem_Provider?view=powershell-7.3

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_FileSystem_Provider?view=powershell-7.2

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/Microsoft.PowerShell.Management/Get-ChildItem?view=powershell-7.4

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/Microsoft.PowerShell.Management/Get-ChildItem?view=powershell-7.3

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/Microsoft.PowerShell.Management/Get-ChildItem?view=powershell-7.2

Summary

Support for determining the targets of AppX reparse points (aka AppExecLinks, such as winget / Microsoft Store-installed applications) was removed in v7.3, and, according to @sdwheeler, back-ported to v7.2

• See APPEXECLINK reparsepoints do not show target and link type PowerShell/PowerShell#19760 (comment) for background information.

Details

The upshot for AppX reparse points in v7.2+ is:

• They no longer print their target after -> in the formatted output.

  • Consider change the formatting for APPEXECLINK reparsepoint to not have the -> part PowerShell/PowerShell#19794 suggests eventually removing -> too.

• Their type-native .LinkTarget property and their ETS .LinkType and .Target properties (an alias of .LinkTarget) are all $null; the type-native .ResolvedTarget property now returns the reparse point's own full path.

• Visually, the l as the first character in the Mode column is now the only indicator that the item is a reparse point.

• To programmatically identify an AppX reparse point now requires:

  • $item.Attributes.HasFlag([System.IO.FileAttributes] 'ReparsePoint') -and $null -eq $item.LinkType
  • If the ETS properties are present, more simply:
    • $item.Mode -like 'l*' -and $null -eq $item.LinkType

Suggested Fix

It's probably worth mentioning at least a condensed version of the above in the linked topics.

[sdwheeler]

This also affects 7.2.11. The change was backported to 7.2 at some point.

[mklement0]

Thanks, @sdwheeler - I've updated the title and the initial post accordingly.

[sdwheeler]

To programmatically identify an AppX reparse point now requires:

I talked with @SteveL-MSFT about getting the .LinkType member populated.