CMake Error: Could not create symbolic link for... (IDFGH-7188)

[xiaguangbo]

env：
esp-idf master

---

Executing task: cmake -G Ninja -DPYTHON_DEPS_CHECKED=1 -DESP_PLATFORM=1 .. <

-- Found Git: C:/Users/xiaguangbo/esp/.espressif/tools/idf-git/2.30.1/cmd/git.exe (found version "2.30.1.windows.1")
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 8.4.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 8.4.0
-- The ASM compiler identification is GNU
-- Found assembler: C:/Users/xiaguangbo/esp/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/bin/xtensa-esp32s2-elf-gcc.exe
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working C compiler: C:/Users/xiaguangbo/esp/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/bin/xtensa-esp32s2-elf-gcc.exe - skipped
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Users/xiaguangbo/esp/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/esp-2021r2-patch3-8.4.0/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/bin/xtensa-esp32s2-elf-g++.exe - skipped
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Project is not inside a git repository, or git repository has no commits; will not use 'git describe' to determine PROJECT_VER.
-- Building ESP-IDF components for target esp32s2
-- Project sdkconfig file D:/xiaguangbo/project/esp/project/template-app/sdkconfig
-- Looking for sys/types.h
-- Looking for sys/types.h - found
-- Looking for stdint.h
-- Looking for stdint.h - found
-- Looking for stddef.h
-- Looking for stddef.h - found
-- Check size of time_t
-- Check size of time_t - done
-- Found Python3: C:/Users/xiaguangbo/esp/.espressif/python_env/idf5.0_py3.8_env/Scripts/python.exe (found version "3.8.7") found components: Interpreter
-- Performing Test C_COMPILER_SUPPORTS_WFORMAT_SIGNEDNESS
-- Performing Test C_COMPILER_SUPPORTS_WFORMAT_SIGNEDNESS - Success
CMake Error at C:/Users/xiaguangbo/esp/esp-idf/components/mbedtls/mbedtls/CMakeLists.txt:148 (message):
Could not create symbolic link for:
C:\Users\xiaguangbo\esp\esp-idf\components\mbedtls\mbedtls\library\error.c
--> 系统无法将文件移到不同的磁盘驱动器。

Call Stack (most recent call first):
C:/Users/xiaguangbo/esp/esp-idf/components/mbedtls/mbedtls/library/CMakeLists.txt:162 (link_to_source)

-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "D:/xiaguangbo/project/esp/project/template-app/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
终端进程“C:\windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -Command cmake -G Ninja -DPYTHON_DEPS_CHECKED=1 -DESP_PLATFORM=1 ..”已终止，退出代码: 1。

[Alvin1Zhang]

Thanks for reporting. Would you please help provide more details as suggested in the issue template? Information like elf, sdk configuration, backtrace, log outputs, commit ID, hardware and etc. would help us debug further. Thanks.

[ESP-Marius]

Hi @xiaguangbo, this seems to be an issue caused upstream by the mbedtls library. It tries to create a symlink between a file in your IDF folder (error.c) to your build folder, which are on two different drives (C: and D:) which Windows seems to be unable to do.

This is is something they changed recently, so building a IDF project on a different drive from the SDK works on release/v4.4 and older, but not on the latest master....

We'll look into this and see if we can find a fix. For now you can work around this by moving your project D:/xiaguangbo/project/esp/ to the C: drive.

[xiaguangbo]

@ESP-Marius That's exactly the problem, thanks

[mahavirj]

Linking Mbed-TLS/mbedtls#5751

[xobs]

Hi, I've just run into this issue, which still seems to be a problem. Is this the only place it's documented that esp-idf must be installed on the C drive? Is there any way esp-idf could be fixed?

As a workaround, I've changed set(command cmd.exe /c mklink /h ${link} ${target}) to set(command cmd.exe /c copy ${target} ${link}) in components/mbedtls/mbedtls/CMakeLists.txt:139.

Either way, this is still a problem and I don't think this issue should be closed, mostly because people will keep running into it and opening duplicates.

[xiaguangbo]

@xobs I reopened this question. This problem is described in 'Linking Mbed-TLS/mbedtls#5751' mentioned by mahavirj

[kolipakakondal]

This problem still exists on the master branch and v5.0. Please find the attached log.
console.txt
CMakeOutput.log

Reported by @sigmaaa

[0xBERNDOG]

This issue can still impact Linux users. I'm using Docker with a mounted volume. I fixed it with:

components/mbedtls/mbedtls/CMakeLists.txt:140

if (CMAKE_HOST_UNIX)
-            execute_process(COMMAND ln -s ${target} ${link}
+            execute_process(COMMAND cp --remove-destination ${target} ${link}
                 RESULT_VARIABLE result
                 ERROR_VARIABLE output)

[supiiik]

This issue can still impact Linux users. I'm using Docker with a mounted volume. I fixed it with:

components/mbedtls/mbedtls/CMakeLists.txt:140

if (CMAKE_HOST_UNIX)
-            execute_process(COMMAND ln -s ${target} ${link}
+            execute_process(COMMAND cp --remove-destination ${target} ${link}
                 RESULT_VARIABLE result
                 ERROR_VARIABLE output)

Fixed my problem too. Thanks