[CMake] cmake -E create_symlink for Windows

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2009-12-12 12:02-0500 Bill Hoffman wrote:

> Some things just can not be done cross platform.   For example reading/ 
> writing the windows registry, creating an OSX application bundle, and 
> sym-links.  Also, some computers don't even have shared libraries. Should we 
> disable those features from CMake?  That said, the symlink command is the 
> only -E that does not work cross platform.   The -E create_symlink does 
> return failure from main when called on windows. So, if you used it in a 
> custom command which is the idea for -E stuff, it would fail in a noticeable 
> way (the build would fail).  If you call it from execute_process, you should 
> be checking the return value as well.

I guess I am the victim of the assumption that all cmake -E commands are
supposed to work cross-platform since all of them do so (which I was glad to
hear) other than create_symlink.  Right now, here is what cmake -E help says
about that command.

   create_symlink old new    - create a symbolic link new -> old

If you simply added (UNIX ONLY) to that documentation string, then users
like me wouldn't make unwarranted assumptions.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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