pylnk3

PyLnk 3

Python library for reading and writing Windows shortcut files (.lnk).
Converted to support python 3.

This library can parse .lnk files and extract all relevant information from them. Parsing a .lnk file yields a LNK object which can be altered and saved again. Moreover, .lnk file can be created from scratch be creating a LNK object, populating it with data and then saving it to a file. As that process requires some knowledge about the internals of .lnk files, some convenience functions are provided.

Limitation: Windows knows lots of different types of shortcuts which all have different formats. This library currently only supports shortcuts to files and folders on the local machine.

CLI

Mainly tool has two basic commands.

Parse existed lnk file

pylnk3 parse [-h] filename [props [props ...]]

positional arguments:
  filename    lnk filename to read
  props       props path to read

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

Create new lnk file

usage: pylnk3 create [-h] [--arguments [ARGUMENTS]] [--description [DESCRIPTION]] [--icon [ICON]]
                     [--icon-index [ICON_INDEX]] [--workdir [WORKDIR]] [--mode [{Maximized,Normal,Minimized}]]
                     target name

positional arguments:
  target                target path
  name                  lnk filename to create

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --arguments [ARGUMENTS], -a [ARGUMENTS]
                        additional arguments
  --description [DESCRIPTION], -d [DESCRIPTION]
                        description
  --icon [ICON], -i [ICON]
                        icon filename
  --icon-index [ICON_INDEX], -ii [ICON_INDEX]
                        icon index
  --workdir [WORKDIR], -w [WORKDIR]
                        working directory
  --mode [{Maximized,Normal,Minimized}], -m [{Maximized,Normal,Minimized}]
                        window mode

Examples

pylnk3 p filename.lnk
pylnk3 c c:\prog.exe shortcut.lnk
pylnk3 c \\192.168.1.1\share\file.doc doc.lnk
pylnk3 create c:\1.txt text.lnk -m Minimized -d "Description"

Changes

0.4.2
changed logic for Lnk.path choose (in case of different paths presents at different structures)
read links with root as GUID of KNOWN_FOLDER
[FIX] disabled padding for writing LinkInfo.local_base_path

0.4.0
added support for network links
reworked CLI (added more options for creating links)
added entry point for call tool just like pylnk3
[FIX] allow build links for non-existed (from this machine) paths
[FIX] correct building links on Linux (now expect Windows-like path)
[FIX] fixed path priority at parsing with both local & remote presents

0.3.0
added support links to UWP apps

0.2.1
released to PyPI

0.2.0
converted to python 3