Windows Vista adds support for symbolic links to files. For the most part, they work like sym links on Unix except that a number of Win32 functions to not follow links.  The list of impacted functions is here:
  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365682.aspx

This bug is submitted to track updating the Windows java.io.File implementation so that the following methods work with sym links:

1. length
2. exists
3. isXXX
4. canXXX
5. setXXX (except setLastModified as it correctly sets the last modified time of the final target)
6. createNewFile (does not fail when existing file is a sym link)

Note that this bug does not include canonicalziation (getCanonicalPath/getCanonicalFile). That will be addressed by a different task (require analysis of some subtle compatability issues that could arise).