An odd behavior (win-junction vs. symlink): trying to find why, & claim of no-symlinks valid?

[L A Walsh <cifs-gT3AUAsYRbTYtjvyW6yDsg@public.gmane.org>]

I'm trying to figure out a 'why' (I know how to get around it) one
junction is showing as a broken link when mounted on linux via cifs.

Background/context:

I have a split system with my Desktop on Windows, but most of the 
non-program
storage on a linux box.  I do most of my development on the linux system
and usually have one or more local tty-session "ssh'd" into it.

I have the root folders of each system mounted on the other, with my
Windows desktop's C-drive mounted at /Athenae.

I have several links of one sort or another (symlink/symlinkd/junctions)
in the Winbox's root drive.

All except one are working from linux and it's the 'one' that I'm
trying to figure out the 'why' -- i.e. what is different about
this one 'symlink'. I put that in quotes, because it's actually
a junction, but other junctions on Athenae work (resolve, are
readable, etc...)

FWIW, my linux server is also functioning as an NT4-style domain
(samba 3.6.22) named 'Bliss' (my idea of irony).  As a result,
I have 2 sets of creds on the Winbox (domain & local creds are
the same on a PDC (Primary Domain Controller).  On the Winbox,
any domain creds have 'Bliss\' prepended to them.


On linux for those junctions I see:

ls: cannot read symbolic link '/Athenae/var': Operation not supported
drwxr-xr-x 2 law Administrators 0  /Athenae/Prog/
drwxr-xr-x 2 law Administrators 0  /Athenae/Symbols/
l--------- 1 law Administrators 0  /Athenae/var    ## shows as broken link


On Windows, using Windows's dir:

11/06/2014  07:45 PM    <JUNCTION>     Prog [C:\Program Files (x86)]
02/09/2016  11:05 PM    <JUNCTION>     Symbols [\\Bliss\Share\Win7_Symbols]
01/11/2017  04:17 PM    <JUNCTION>     var [C:\Windows\System32\cygwin\var]

Also on winbox under cygwin:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 Bliss\law lawgroup       20  /Prog -> /Program Files (x86)/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Bliss\law Bliss\lawgroup 26  /Symbols -> 
//Bliss/Share/Win7_Symbols/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 Bliss\law Bliss\lawgroup 28  /var -> 
/Windows/System32/cygwin/var/


I was wondering if anyone had any ideas why the 1 junction is showing
as 'unreadable' (even though it is -- but showing as a broken link)
while the others work (and permissions don't ***seem*** to be at
issue).

FWIW, any symlinks on my Winbox work just fine on Linux mounts using
CIFS. It _bothers_ me that I've seen in a few places that one is
not supposed to be able to read Windows symlinks via CIFS when I can.

Is this true or is it that no one has been able to verify them working?
If it is the latter, my own experience is that it's a matter of making
sure the symlinks 'resolve'. Even the 'Symbols' link, above which
points back to the linux server, works -- though not very efficiently.

Ideas on the 1 junction misbehaving & verification on symlinks working
or not would be appreciated -- though I'm already close to just "fixing it"
by using a symlinkd instead of a junction after writing this up... ;-)