symlinkSync not working on Windows 10

[JonWallsten]

• Version: 10.8.0
• Platform: Windows 10 64-bit
• Subsystem:

I'm unable to create a symbolic link with fs.symlinkSync, Node gives me the following error:
Error: EEXIST: file already exists, symlink

I have also tried running it with an elevated prompt without luck. Check all top result on Google. No luck.

//symlink.js
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

const origin = 'C:\\Users\\<masked>\\repo\\<masked>\\node_modules\\.bin\\tslint.cmd'; // Confirmed that it exists by "Windows Run"
const target = 'C:\\Users\\<masked>\\repo\\<masked>\\packages\\web-app-edit\\node_modules\\.bin\\tslint.cmd'; // Folder exists but file doesn't. Confirmed by code checks.

function ensureDirectoryExistence (filePath) {
    const dir = path.dirname(filePath);
    if (fs.existsSync(dir)) {
        return true;
    }
    ensureDirectoryExistence(dir);
    fs.mkdirSync(dir);
}

console.log('Symlink: ', target, origin);
if (!fs.existsSync(target) && fs.existsSync(origin)) {
    ensureDirectoryExistence(target);
    fs.symlinkSync(target, origin, 'file');
} else {
    console.warn('Symlink already exists. Target: ', target);
}

> node ./build-tools/symlink.js

Symlink:  C:\Users\<masked>\repo\<masked>\packages\web-app-edit\node_modules\.bin\tslint.cmd C:\Users\<masked>\repo\<masked>\node_modules\.bin\tslint.cmd
fs.js:113
    throw err;
    ^

Error: EEXIST: file already exists, symlink 'C:\Users\<masked>\repo\<masked>\packages\web-app-edit\node_modules\.bin\tslint.cmd' -> 'C:\Users\<masked>\repo\<masked>\node_modules\.bin\tslint.cmd'
    at Object.symlinkSync (fs.js:869:3)
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\<masked>\repo\<masked>\build-tools\symlink.js:19:8)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:689:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:700:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:599:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:538:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:530:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:742:12)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:266:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:596:3)
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! web@ jon: `node ./build-tools/symlink.js`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the web@ jon script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     C:\Users\<masked>\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache\_logs\2018-08-09T11_30_10_032Z-debug.log

[bzoz]

It should be fs.symlinkSync(origin, target, 'file');

[JonWallsten]

@bzoz I've tried both ways. When I did the other way around I got another error.

[bzoz]

It should be (origin, target). Here is an example from the documentation:

fs.symlink('./foo', './new-port', callback);
It creates a symbolic link named "new-port" that points to "foo".

What is the new error that you are getting?

[JonWallsten]

Not sure actually. The log seems to be cleaned up already. I tried changing again. And it does work now. So it might have been an unrelated error. Maybe another process temporarily locking the file/folder.
I'm closing this. Thanks!

[dharkness]

It won't overwrite an existing symlink which got me earlier. Use fs.unlinkSync() to remove an existing link first.

[renatocassino]

I tried put 'junction' at thrid parameter and worked for me.

const fs = require('fs');
const util = require('util');

const symlinkAsync = util.promisify(fs.symlink);

const createSymlink = async (path1, path2) => {
  try {
    await symlinkAsync(path1, path2, 'junction'); // <- Magic here
  } catch (e) {
    console.log(e.message);
  }
}

Worked at Linux and Windows