Cannot symlink or hardlink: can only delete dupes

[Rings4]

Scanned 2 directories, clicked "select all except oldest", then clicked hardlink: nothing happened. Symlink didn't do anything either. Delete works, but I don't want to delete.

[NAHNAH55]

Same issue. Symlink function does nothing. I wish I knew this before spending all day scanning my files.

[qarmin]

What OS?
If windows, then for now only simlinks are implemented.
For unix like os(which use inode like Linux or macOS) it should work both symlink and hardlink

[NAHNAH55]

Win 10. I haven't tried hard links, but symlinks don't work. I've tried both elevated and not elevated access. I select a file, press the symlink button and the file(s) are deselected. No change takes place, neither file has been replaced with a link.

[Rings4]

dupeGuru works with symlinks and hardlinks just fine. Perhaps you can look at what they're doing to implement into your own software? https://dupeguru.voltaicideas.net/

[qarmin]

The problem is mostly with functions which Rust standard library provide(Rust and Python differs a lot)
Symlink on Windows problem should be fixed by #409

[qarmin]

Hard-links should probably works with the latest version(future 3.2 version)

[mascherone108]

I'm using Kubuntu 21.04 and it still doesn't work for me just as OP described.

[qarmin]

Oh, now I understand what is happening(I think that this behavior is somewhere documented).

Symlinks and Hardlinks can be generated only if in group is at least 2 selected results.
1 result is always unchanged and second and furthers are hardlinked to first.

I reopened issue because in future I probably can implement this(this require to do some deep changes in method how hardlinks or symlinks are handled)

[TiagoTiago]

How do I select which one of the files will be the target of the symlink?

[Bartek200219]

When I try to create hard link program crashes.
(Czkawka 3.2.0
Windows 10 2004)

[qarmin]

Crash when hardlinking is fixed in master branch, but still happens with 3.3.1 version and it show when clicking at hardlink/symlink button without any record selected.

Warning message about it is added in this PR - #489

For now I don't see simple and clear for user method to set target of file used in hardlinking

[z0diaq]

What about drag and drop within groups to change ordering ?
So old behavior of first file is kept unchanged and other pointing to would remain and users still could choose what should stay.
This is quite important feature missing since there are many times 'source locations' and 'copies' and most of the time (if not like always?) I want to change 'copies' to point to source locations not other way around so after copy is deleted other links will stay valid (talking about symlinks)

[z0diaq]

Also current behavior is very non intuitive (3.3.1) - I've also spent some time trying to figure out how to use symlink \ hardlink... Same as author of topic I've thought I should choose single file and other files from group will point to it... was quite lost after clicking hardlink \ softlink and nothing happened - 'these buttons work at all?' and started to search on web for and found this thread...

Would be great if You could spend some time on improving current behavior, what I could suggest these approaches to consider:

• r-click and select 'make primary' to select which stays and which will be changed to link
• allow to drag and drop within group to change ordering
• also disable or at least show error message when user selects single item and clicks any of link buttons
• please don't remove items from list if operation fails - for example hardlink may fail but softlink may pass - had exactly this issue today, had to scan again to restore found dups

[login404]

Creating hard links can not work, showing refusal access
But the symbolic link can work properly
dupeGuru hard links and symbolic links can work properly
The test results on Windows 7 and Windows 10 21H2 (19044.1415) are the same