issue2699: restore symlinks on windows when run as admin user

changelog/unreleased/issue-2699

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+Bugfix: Restore symbolic links on windows
+
+We've added support to restore symbolic links on windows.
+Because of windows specific restrictions this is only possible when running
+restic having SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege privilege or when running as admin.
+
+https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/1078
+https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/2699
+https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/2875

doc/050_restore.rst

@@ -56,6 +56,10 @@ There are case insensitive variants of ``--exclude`` and ``--include`` called
 ``--iexclude`` and ``--iinclude``. These options will behave the same way but
 ignore the casing of paths.
 
+Restoring symbolic links on windows is only possible when the user has
+``SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege`` privilege or is running as admin. This is a
+restriction of windows not restic.
+
 Restore using mount
 ===================
 

internal/fs/file.go

@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ func Rename(oldpath, newpath string) error {
 // Symlink creates newname as a symbolic link to oldname.
 // If there is an error, it will be of type *LinkError.
 func Symlink(oldname, newname string) error {
-	return os.Symlink(fixpath(oldname), fixpath(newname))
+	return os.Symlink(oldname, fixpath(newname))
 }
 
 // Link creates newname as a hard link to oldname.

internal/restic/node.go

@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/errors"
 
 	"bytes"
-	"runtime"
 
 	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/debug"
 	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/fs"
@@ -295,10 +294,6 @@ func (node Node) writeNodeContent(ctx context.Context, repo Repository, f *os.Fi
 }
 
 func (node Node) createSymlinkAt(path string) error {
-	// Windows does not allow non-admins to create soft links.
-	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
-		return nil
-	}
 
 	if err := os.Remove(path); err != nil && !errors.Is(err, os.ErrNotExist) {
 		return errors.Wrap(err, "Symlink")