LNKINFO(1)

💖 lnkinfo — the manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about lnkinfo from the LOCAL manual section, and honestly? she's that girl. ✨

🦋 NAME 🦋

lnkinfo — determines information about a Windows Shortcut File (LNK)

like. that's her whole job. she looks at a .lnk and tells you everything. no cap.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

lnkinfo [-c codepage] [-hvV] source

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so lnkinfo is a utility to determine information about a Windows Shortcut File (LNK). that's it. that's the vibe. 🔥

she's part of the liblnk package, and liblnk is a library to access the Windows Shortcut File (LNK) format. so she's not out here alone, she's got a whole squad behind her. 👑

source is the source file. that's the file she's gonna snoop on. 💅

the options are as follows:

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -c codepage — specify the codepage of ASCII strings. the options are: ascii, windows-874, windows-932, windows-936, windows-949, windows-950, windows-1250, windows-1251, windows-1252 (default), windows-1253, windows-1254, windows-1255, windows-1256, windows-1257 or windows-1258. yes bestie there's a LOT of them. windows-1252 is the default if you don't say anything, so she'll just assume that. 🎀
• -h — shows this help. the classic "help me please" button. 🫶
• -v — verbose output to stderr. she'll start oversharing (affectionately) 💀
• -V — print version. she'll tell you who she is and what era she's in. ⭐

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

None

like. nothing. she doesn't need your environment variables, she's self-sufficient. iconic. 💜

🍓 FILES 🍓

None

no config files, no dotfiles, nothing to babysit. we love a low-maintenance queen. 🧚

🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

okay here's the moment you've been waiting for. watch her cook:

# lnkinfo Calculator.lnk
lnkinfo 20140831

Windows Shortcut information:
        Contains a link target identifier
        Contains a description string
        Contains a working directory string
        Contains an environment variables block

Link information:
        Creation time                   : Aug 10, 2004 16:54:24.000000000 UTC
        Modification time               : Aug 04, 2004 14:00:00.000000000 UTC
        Access time                     : Jun 26, 2006 10:36:41.703125000 UTC
        File size                       : 114688 bytes
        File attribute flags            : 0x00000020
                Should be archived (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE)
        Drive type                      : Fixed (3)
        Drive serial number             : 0xc868f004
        Volume label                    : System
        Local path                      : C:\WINDOWS\system32\calc.exe
        Description                     : @%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-22531
        Working directory               : C:\WINDOWS\system32
        Environment variables location  : %SystemRoot%\system32\calc.exe

Link target identifier:
        Shell item list
                Number of items         : 5

        Shell item: 1
                Item type               : Root folder
                Class type indicator    : 0x1f (Root folder)
                Shell folder identifier : 20d04fe0-3aea-1069-a2d8-08002b30309d
                Shell folder name       : My Computer

        Shell item: 2
                Item type               : Volume
                Class type indicator    : 0x2f (Volume)
                Volume name             : C:\

        Shell item: 3
                Item type               : File entry
                Class type indicator    : 0x31 (File entry: Directory)
                Name                    : WINDOWS
                Modification time       : Dec 17, 2006 20:55:44
                File attribute flags    : 0x00000010
                        Is directory (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
        Extension block: 1
                Signature               : 0xbeef0004 (File entry extension)
                Long name               : WINDOWS
                Creation time           : Feb 01, 2006 21:49:46
                Access time             : Dec 17, 2006 20:55:48

        Shell item: 4
                Item type               : File entry
                Class type indicator    : 0x31 (File entry: Directory)
                Name                    : system32
                Modification time       : Nov 26, 2006 19:56:54
                File attribute flags    : 0x00000030
                        Is directory (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
                        Should be archived (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE)
        Extension block: 1
                Signature               : 0xbeef0004 (File entry extension)
                Long name               : system32
                Creation time           : Feb 01, 2006 21:49:46
                Access time             : Dec 17, 2006 20:49:46

        Shell item: 5
                Item type               : File entry
                Class type indicator    : 0x32 (File entry: File)
                Name                    : calc.exe
                Modification time       : Aug 04, 2004 14:00:00
                File attribute flags    : 0x00000020
                        Should be archived (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE)
        Extension block: 1
                Signature               : 0xbeef0004 (File entry extension)
                Long name               : calc.exe
                Creation time           : Aug 10, 2004 16:54:24
                Access time             : Jun 26, 2006 10:36:42

Distributed link tracking data:
        Machine identifier              : hostname
        Droid volume identifier         : f6084ef7-7b6a-41e7-a286-e376c0ffd656
        Droid file identifier           : b7d0e438-4422-48b0-be9d-b4bc8794cef6
        Birth droid volume identifier   : f6084ef7-7b6a-41e7-a286-e376c0ffd656
        Birth droid file identifier     : b7d0e438-4422-48b0-be9d-b4bc8794cef6

look at all those timestamps. the droids. the shell items. she ATE and left no crumbs. 😭✨

👑 DIAGNOSTICS 👑

errors, verbose and debug output are printed to stderr when verbose output -v is enabled. and — listen carefully bestie — verbose and debug output are only printed when enabled at compilation. so if it's not compiled in, you're just not gonna see it, no matter how hard you beg. structures. 🫠

😭 BUGS 😭

found a bug? please report bugs of any kind to <joachim.metz@gmail.com> or on the project website: https://github.com/libyal/liblnk/

she wants to know. she's not gonna be mad. she's gonna fix it. 🩹

💜 AUTHOR 💜

these man pages were written by Joachim Metz. periodt.

🎀 COPYRIGHT 🎀

copyright (C) 2009-2024, Joachim Metz <joachim.metz@gmail.com>. this is free software; see the source for copying conditions. there is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

read that last part again bestie. NO WARRANTY. not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. she's free and she's honest about it. 😌

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

liblnk

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okay that's the whole page, you're officially fluent 💫 — this was the liblnk version from April 15, 2019, mwah, go read some .lnk files, ily, bye 💖🎀🦋