readWindowsShortcut {R.utils}

Reads a Microsoft Windows Shortcut (.lnk file)

Description

Reads a Microsoft Windows Shortcut (.lnk file).

Usage

## Default S3 method:
readWindowsShortcut(con, verbose=FALSE, ...)

Arguments

con

A connection or a character string (filename).

verbose

If TRUE, extra information is written while reading.

...

Not used.

Details

The MIME type for a Windows Shortcut file is application/x-ms-shortcut.

Value

Returns a list structure.

Author(s)

Henrik Bengtsson

References

[1] Wotsit's Format, http://www.wotsit.org/, 2005.
[2] Hager J, The Windows Shortcut File Format (as reverse-engineered by), version 1.0.
[3] Microsoft Developer Network, IShellLink Interface, 2018. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/shobjidl_core/nn-shobjidl_core-ishelllinka
[4] Andrews D, Parsing Windows Shortcuts (lnk) files in java, comp.lang.java.help, Aug 1999. https://groups.google.com/d/topic/comp.lang.java.help/ouFHsH1UgKI
[5] Multiple authors, Windows shell links (in Tcl), Tcler's Wiki, April 2008. https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/1844
[6] Daniel S. Bensen, Shortcut File Format (.lnk), Stdlib.com, April 24, 2009.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110817051855/http://www.stdlib.com/art6-Shortcut-File-Format-lnk.html (was http://www.stdlib.com/art6-Shortcut-File-Format-lnk.html)
[7] [MS-SHLLINK]: Shell Link (.LNK) Binary File Format, Microsoft Inc., September 25, 2009.

See Also

createWindowsShortcut() and filePath()

Examples

pathname <- system.file("data-ex/HISTORY.LNK", package="R.utils")
lnk <- readWindowsShortcut(pathname)

# Print all information
print(lnk)

# Get the relative path to the target file
history <- file.path(dirname(pathname), lnk$relativePath)

# Alternatively, everything in one call
history <- filePath(pathname, expandLinks="relative")