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Shell installer: updating PATH replaces symlinked profiles and changes existing file permissions

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
85/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
python, shell
Domain
cli

Research direction

The bug is in the installer's PATH block rewriting logic, specifically the rewrite_path_block function that writes to a temporary file and moves it over the profile pathname. Start from the installer script (likely under scripts/install.sh) and the test fixture in scripts/install/test_install_sh.py. Use the provided reproduction script to confirm the issue, then modify the rewrite to resolve symlinks, preserve the original file's mode, and update the target file rather than replacing the symlink. Run the installer test suite to verify the fix.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

bug CLI
What issue are you seeing?

When a shell profile already contains a Codex PATH block and is a symlink into a dotfiles directory, rerunning the shell installer replaces that symlink with a regular file. Its original dotfiles target is not updated. The same rewrite also changes an existing regular profile's mode to the temporary file's mode.

Confirmed on main ac9b5b8380517ded445b09dd3196d8d9e2ba3c59 with the existing local installer fixture on Linux, using its macOS mock. This does not establish behavior on an actual macOS host.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Save and run python installer-profile-symlink-repro.py /path/to/codex-checkout. All package downloads are mocked by the existing local fixture; all profile writes remain in a temporary directory.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Local installer fixture on Linux with mocked macOS; no network or user profile writes.

Usage: python installer-profile-symlink-repro.py /path/to/codex-checkout
"""

import importlib.util
from pathlib import Path
import stat
import sys
import tempfile


checkout = Path(sys.argv[1]).resolve()
spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location(
    "installer_fixture", checkout / "scripts/install/test_install_sh.py"
)
fixture = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
spec.loader.exec_module(fixture)

with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(prefix="codex profile repro ") as temporary:
    root = Path(temporary).resolve()
    archive, checksum, metadata = fixture.create_package_release(root)
    (root / "home").mkdir()
    (root / "dotfiles").mkdir()
    target = root / "dotfiles/profile"
    profile = root / "home/.profile"
    profile.symlink_to("../dotfiles/profile")
    target.write_text(
        'export EXISTING_SETTING="keep this"\n'
        '# >>> Codex installer >>>\nexport PATH="/old/bin:$PATH"\n'
        "# <<< Codex installer <<<\n"
    )
    target.chmod(0o640)

    result, _ = fixture.run_installer_in(
        root,
        fixture.VERSION,
        metadata_json=metadata,
        archive_path=archive,
        checksum_path=checksum,
        force_macos=True,
    )

    print(f"installer_exit={result.returncode}")
    print(f"profile_is_symlink={profile.is_symlink()}")
    print(f"dotfiles_target_updated={str(root / 'install-bin') in target.read_text()}")
    print(f"profile_mode={oct(stat.S_IMODE(profile.stat().st_mode))}")
    print(f"dotfiles_target_mode={oct(stat.S_IMODE(target.stat().st_mode))}")
    print(f"existing_setting_preserved={'keep this' in profile.read_text()}")
    if result.stderr:
        print(f"stderr={result.stderr.strip()}")

With the original installer:

installer_exit=0
profile_is_symlink=False
dotfiles_target_updated=False
profile_mode=0o600
dotfiles_target_mode=0o640
existing_setting_preserved=True

The resulting mode depends on the ambient umask; 0600 is the observed value here, not a universal value.

What is the expected behavior?

Updating the installer-managed PATH block should preserve the user's profile symlink, update its target, retain unrelated content, and preserve the existing profile permissions.

Additional information

rewrite_path_block() writes a temporary file and moves it over the profile pathname. The move replaces the symlink instead of following it, and the temporary file does not retain the original file's mode.

I tested a candidate that resolves the final profile target, stages the update beside that target while retaining its file metadata, and replaces the target instead of the profile symlink. The reproduction then preserves the symlink, updates the dotfiles target, and retains mode 0640. The complete installer suite passes 23 tests and 11 subtests; coverage includes linked profile chains, a regular profile's mode, first-time appends, first-time writes through a broken link whose target directory exists, and failure cleanup that leaves original content intact. Shell syntax and diff checks pass.

Searched installer/profile/symlink and dotfiles reports and found no equivalent issue. No external PR is requested, consistent with the contribution policy.

Dominant language
Rust
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Merged PRs (30d)
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