René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"New-Item: When creating symbolic links (symlinks) / reparse points, the -Target path should always be treated as a *literal* path","articleBody":"Note: \r\n\r\n* This is technically a breaking change, but one that to me falls into [Bucket 3: Unlikely Grey Area](https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/blob/master/docs/dev-process/breaking-change-contract.md#bucket-3-unlikely-grey-area).\r\n\r\n* We've recently made an analogous change to `Invoke-WebRequest` / `Invoke-RestMethod`, which now sensibly interpret their `-OutFile` argument invariably as a _literal_ path - see #11701\r\n\r\n  * Similar fixes are pending in other contexts: #4726, #9225, #4726.\r\n\r\n## Summary of the new feature/enhancement\r\n\r\nWhen you create a symlink or reparse point, you want to target a _specific, literal_ target path - you're not looking for this path to determined via _wildcard-pattern matching_, which, however, is what currently happens: a `-Target` (`-Value`) argument is (invariably) interpreted as a wildcard pattern. What makes the behavior even less useful is that the pattern must resolve to _exactly one_ path.\r\n\r\n* Interpreting the `-Target` (`-Value`) argument as a wildcard expression means that meant-to-be-literal paths such as `[a].txt` would mistakenly target `a.txt`, if present, for instance.\r\n\r\n* Also, as a potentially unwanted side effect, if the `-Target` (`-Value`) _is_ determined via wildcard resolution, a relative input path (pattern) is invariably resolved to a _full_ path.\r\n\r\n**The sensible behavior is to _always_ treat the `-Target` (`-Value`) argument  as a _literal_ path** (and to preserve its relative-vs.-full path status, as specified).\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\nOnce the change is implemented, the following tests - which currently fail - should succeed:\r\n\r\n```powershell\r\n$null = New-Item 'file1', 'file[1]'\r\n\r\n$targetRelative = 'file[1]'\r\n$targetAbsolute = Join-Path $pwd.providerpath 'file[1]'\r\n\r\n(New-Item -Type SymbolicLink fileL -Target $targetRelative).Target | Should -Be $targetRelative\r\n(New-Item -Force -Type SymbolicLink fileL -Target $targetAbsolute).Target | Should -Be $targetAbsolute\r\n```\r\n\r\nThe tests currently fail, because `file[1]` is interpreted as a wildcard pattern that happens to match `file1`.\r\n\r\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/mklement0","@type":"Person","name":"mklement0"},"datePublished":"2020-07-08T18:27:30.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":17},"url":"https://github.com/13136/PowerShell/issues/13136"}