aspiers/stow

Support package trees containing absolute symlinks

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#51 opened on Jun 28, 2019

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 (9 comments) (18 reactions) (0 assignees)Perl (1,013 stars) (51 forks)batch import
absolute pathsenhancementhelp wanted

Description

[This feature request was originally confused with #11 and reported there; moving here to stop the confusion.]

Example use case given by @dmarcoux is a Stow package containing dotfiles for $HOME, in which .mysql_history, .bash_history, and .less_history are symlinks to /dev/null.

Currently Stow refuses to stow these absolute symlinks:

WARNING! stowing home would cause conflicts:
  * source is an absolute symlink dotfiles/home/.bash_history => /dev/null
  * source is an absolute symlink dotfiles/home/.lesshst => /dev/null
  * source is an absolute symlink dotfiles/home/.mysql_history => /dev/null
All operations aborted.

To clarify:

  • This issue is about package trees containing absolute symlinks.
  • #11 is about the Stow directory being a symlink.
  • #3 is about the symlinks which Stow manages in the target directory being absolute symlinks.

They're all separate issues despite appearing similar on the surface.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
None
Domain
backendtooling
Issue type
feature
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.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Perl programmingSymlink conceptsGNU Stow basics
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
65
Research direction
First, examine the stow source code to find where absolute symlinks in package trees are detected and rejected. Look in files like `Stow.pm` or `stow` script for the warning message 'source is an absolute symlink'. Modify the logic to allow absolute symlinks that point to `/dev/null` or other harmless targets, or to accept all absolute symlinks with appropriate handling. Check the issue comments for any proposed solutions or maintainer guidance. Ensure that the change does not break existing functionality for relative symlinks.