[JENKINS-54110] Pipeline's dir() does not work with symlinks

I'm currently trying to do this as a way of getting around bash's interpreter path length restrictions. Since Jenkins Pipeline generates an obscenely long workspace name, I figured the easiest solution would be to create a symlink in /tmp and just change directory into it. Unfortunately, this does not work.

This is easy to reproduce, just run the following Pipeline job:

node {

    def id = UUID.randomUUID().toString()

    def symlink = "/tmp/${id}"

    sh("ln -s ${pwd()} ${symlink}")

    sh("ls -lah /tmp")

    dir(symlink) {

println("Jenkins thinks we are in ${pwd()}")

sh('echo "But we are actually in `pwd`"')

sh("ls -lah /tmp")

    }

    sh("rm -fr /tmp/${id}")

} 

 

If you run that, you'll also see that Jenkins generates this odd directory when you try to change into the symlink:

 

+ ls -lah /tmp

total 3.0M

drwxrwxrwt 43 root     root     4.0K Oct 16 18:36 .

dr-xr-xr-x 27 root     root     4.0K Oct 16 18:10 ..

lrwxrwxrwx  1 jenkins  jenkins    40 Oct 16 18:36 136ef826-e9a1-479e-9074-1de076349252 -> /var/build/workspace/jenkinsfile-sandbox

drwxr-xr-x  3 jenkins  jenkins  4.0K Oct 16 18:36 136ef826-e9a1-479e-9074-1de076349252@​tmp 

 

---
Originally reported by monitorjbl, imported from: Pipeline's dir() does not work with symlinks

• status: Open
  
• priority: Major
  
• component(s): workflow-basic-steps-plugin
  
• resolution: Unresolved
  
• votes: 3
  
• watchers: 4
  
• imported: 20251215-220547
  

Raw content of original issue

I'm currently trying to do this as a way of getting around bash's interpreter path length restrictions. Since Jenkins Pipeline generates an obscenely long workspace name, I figured the easiest solution would be to create a symlink in /tmp and just change directory into it. Unfortunately, this does not work.


This is easy to reproduce, just run the following Pipeline job:



node {

    def id = UUID.randomUUID().toString()

    def symlink = "/tmp/${id}"

    sh("ln -s ${pwd()} ${symlink}")

    sh("ls -lah /tmp")

    dir(symlink) {

        println("Jenkins thinks we are in ${pwd()}")

        sh('echo "But we are actually in `pwd`"')

        sh("ls -lah /tmp")

    }

    sh("rm -fr /tmp/${id}")

} 



 


If you run that, you'll also see that Jenkins generates this odd directory when you try to change into the symlink:


 



+ ls -lah /tmp

total 3.0M

drwxrwxrwt 43 root     root     4.0K Oct 16 18:36 .

dr-xr-xr-x 27 root     root     4.0K Oct 16 18:10 ..

lrwxrwxrwx  1 jenkins  jenkins    40 Oct 16 18:36 136ef826-e9a1-479e-9074-1de076349252 -> /var/build/workspace/jenkinsfile-sandbox

drwxr-xr-x  3 jenkins  jenkins  4.0K Oct 16 18:36 136ef826-e9a1-479e-9074-1de076349252@tmp