gleam-lang/gleam

Compilation breaks when renaming project directory

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#5430 opened on Mar 5, 2026

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help wanted

Description

Renaming a gleam project directory causes a compilation error. Running the following shell commands (on Arch Linux):

gleam new repro
cd repro
gleam add lustre
gleam build
cd ..
mv repro repro_broken
cd repro_broken
gleam build

Result in the following error:

error: File IO failure

An error occurred while trying to link this file:

    /tmp/tmp.QzSnQdYrRy/repro_broken/build/dev/erlang/lustre/priv

The error message from the file IO library was:

    File exists (os error 17)

Running gleam build a second time seems to fix the error.

I routinely run into this because I run gleam projects via bind mounts in various development containers. It's a bit of a weird setup :D

I didn't do a super deep investigation but it seems related to the symlinks to priv, e.g. in build/dev/erlang/lustre:

ll build/dev/erlang/lustre
Permissions Size User   Group  Date Modified Name
...
lrwxrwxrwx     - rafael rafael  5 Mär 11:50  priv -> /tmp/tmp.QzSnQdYrRy/repro/build/packages/lustre/priv

Would it be an option to use relative links instead? Or to find broken symlinks and recreate them?

In both cases, this seems like an easy issue to fix, if someone is interested in giving some hints I'd like to make a PR :)

Contributor guide

Tech stack
rust
Domain
build systemdeveloper experience
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.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Understanding of symlinksGleam build processRust
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
65
Research direction
Investigate the build system code that creates symlinks for priv directories, likely in the Erlang compilation phase. Check how the symlink path is constructed and consider using relative paths or recreating broken symlinks. The file priv symlink in build/dev/erlang/* should point to a relative path instead of absolute. Look at the build process for packages like lustre.