JuliaLang/julia

`EACCES` when checking `islink` for symbolic link on Windows

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#58,870 opened on Jul 1, 2025

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good first issue

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Description

On Windows, when attempting to access CLAUDE.md on master:

julia> islink("CLAUDE.md")
ERROR: IOError: stat("CLAUDE.md"): permission denied (EACCES)

It looks like Windows 10+ supports a form of symbolic links, which Git will use now - unfortunately islink and isfile are unhappy about them.

This causes make check-whitespace to fail on Windows for me.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Investigate the EACCES permission denied error when calling islink on a symbolic link on Windows. This is likely due to differences in how Windows handles symbolic links, especially those created by Git. Look into how Julia's stat function handles Windows symlinks and consider using a different Windows API call.
Tech stack
None
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
GitWindows
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
60