It all started with a reply by Storebro to Malone when we discussed something in the Beta forum.
sharing one 'master' paintschemes folder with other installs
Actually you can share whatever you like with other installs as long as the file system you're using for your installation is NTFS.
In that case you can easily create Symbolic Links which point to some folder from several other game installations.
Example:
You've got two IL-2 Installations, one at "D:\IL2\MyFirstIl2Installation", another one at "D:\IL2\MySecondIl2Installation".
You create a shared folder "D:\IL2\Shared Files".
Now you want to share the "Paintschemes" folder. To do so, create a folder "Paintschemes" in "D:\IL2\Shared Files", so you have a folder "D:\IL2\Shared Files\Paintschemes".
Next you copy/merge the files from both "D:\IL2\MyFirstIl2Installation\Paintschemes" and "D:\IL2\MySecondIl2Installation\Paintschemes" into "D:\IL2\Shared Files\Paintschemes".
Then you delete both folders "D:\IL2\MyFirstIl2Installation\Paintschemes" and "D:\IL2\MySecondIl2Installation\Paintschemes".
Now you open a command prompt (click Windows Start button, enter "cmd" (without double quotes) and press Enter/Return).
At the command prompt enter the following commands, line by line, each line ends with pressing Enter/Return key (note that the path names are from the samples above, adjust them to your needs):
D:
cd \IL2
cd MyFirstIl2Installation
mklink /D Paintschemes "D:\IL2\Shared Files\Paintschemes"
cd ..
cd MySecondIl2Installation
mklink /D Paintschemes "D:\IL2\Shared Files\Paintschemes"
Voilá, now both installations share the same "Paintschemes" folder. This works with any other folder/file as well.
In case you're afraid to use the command prompt, you can use third party tools which are capable of creating NTFS symbolic links as well, e.g. Link Shell Extension.
Best regards - Mike
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I use this "method" for years now and had no problems
apart from a few mistakes made by me.
I share my skins folder (very large) or others like the "samples" folder
with several Il2 different installs. Within ie my MA 4.12.2 directory
I share the XTD folder, planes, ships etc ... this all is possible.
And more, I even share some SFS files with different IL2 installs!
This means, the claymores_190 or the jetwar_SFS files
are stored physically only one time, but I share them seperate installs...
and last not least I have the basic SFS files from stock Il2
only once but share it with my three Il-2 installs I have atm.
you can imagine how many HD space is spared ..
the secret is: when you know what a ordinary file link is you know
that there is a bad disadvantage: this files with the little white arrow
on their icon aren't useable with IL2!
But with "Symbolic Links" it works!!!!!!! My several Il-2 installs "reads"
and "executes" them as they were files and/or folders which
are physically present ... although they come from only
one "master" folder wich is NOT in the IL2 folders
but somewhere on my HD ..!
example one: shared sfs
files (in XP named "hardlinks"):
(note the
red arrow on the icons!,
this indicates them as hardlinks/junctions)
this are so called hardlinks,
files wich I share from
a master folder into the root of my IL2 installs.
example 2: shared
folders: (in XP named "junctions"):
here you see the several shared planes skins
folders within
one of my paintscheme skins folders .. (note: I have not shared
the
whole skin folder "in one piece" because I wanted
to have it more flexible.) And of course you can share the bmp files
within the several planes skins folders .. so I have all the bf-109E4 skins
shared into my 109E7 folder via hardlinks! etc.
note also the shared samples folder.
The same here in example 3, my shared maps folder:
all what you see with a red arrow on the icon is stored phyically
only once within one master folder.
and the next big advatage is:
I have to do all my install,
reinstall work there only for one time!!!!!!!!
This means when overwriting a static.actors witha patched one
in my master folders XXX maps folder this is automaticaly reckoned
in all the shared junctions folders then, I must not take care for them.
Now you will understand why one of my "mods" folders looks
like this in my installs:
of course I share planes (and other folders), I install them only once
in the master folder, there I upgrade etc. them and share them
whereever I need them!
My advice is: Try first with dummy folders/files before doing
something within IL2 but at least try this, you will love it.
Ah, I forgot: to share ie
all planes-skins folders out
of my master skin folder into a new fresh empty skin folder
happens in only 5 seconds with a simple "select all/drag/drop action!
Now remember how long you will wait when copying them ..
looks like this:
with this (new when you have installed Link Shell Extension) command:
I drag and drop
and the result is this (note the properties
0 bytes of my skins directory):
Try it.
To see how to do this all with "
Symbolic Links" go here:
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,62718.0/topicseen.htmlSome useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_linkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_linkHere is the SW which provides a easy usage
for all mentioned above: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html
Author
Topic: shared IL2s files,folders? - use Symbolic-Links (Read 10513 times)
