In .NET, How to obtain the target of a symbolic link (or Reparse Point)?

Question

In .NET, I think I can determine if a file is a symbolic link by calling System.IO.File.GetAttributes(), and checking for the ReparsePoint bit. like so:

var a = System.IO.File.GetAttributes(fileName);
if ((a & FileAttributes.ReparsePoint) != 0)
{
    // it's a symlink
}

How can I obtain the target of the symbolic link, in this case?

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ps: I know how to create a symbolic link. It requires P/Invoke:

[Interop.DllImport("kernel32.dll", EntryPoint="CreateSymbolicLinkW", CharSet=Interop.CharSet.Unicode)] 
public static extern int CreateSymbolicLink(string lpSymlinkFileName, string lpTargetFileName, int dwFlags); 

Answer 1

You have to use DeviceIoControl() and send the FSCTL_GET_REPARSE_POINT control code. The P/Invoke and API usage details are quite gritty, but it Googles really well.

Answer 2

Open the file, and then pass the handle to GetFinalPathNameByHandle.

Answer 3

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vista/ReparsePointID.aspx?display=Print may help.

Answer 4

You can forget about unmanaged code and use the Windows API Code Pack. Get a target of a symbolic link through a property System.Link.TargetParsingPath of ShellObject instance. Something like that:

var symlink = ShellObject.FromParsingName(@"D:\temp\symlink");
Console.WriteLine(symlink.Properties.System.Link.TargetParsingPath.Value);

(Also, using this library you can determine whether a file is a symbolic link).