microsoft / microsoft/STL

`<filesystem>`: `rename` is not POSIX compliant

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bug filesystem
Dominant language
C++
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Description

According to this https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/filesystem/rename
filesystem::rename does not handle 2 cases.

Case 1: Renaming files which are hard-links of each other should be a no-op

Command-line test case

C:\Temp> echo "hello" > f1
C:\Temp> mklink /H f1 f2

C:\Temp>type c1.cpp
#include <filesystem>

int main() {
   std::filesystem::rename("f1","f2");
}

C:\Temp>cl /EHsc /W4 /std:c++17 .\c1.cpp
Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.23.28019.1 for x64
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

c1.cpp
Microsoft (R) Incremental Linker Version 14.23.28019.1
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

/out:c1.exe
c1.obj

C:\Temp>.\c1.exe

Expected behavior

C:\Temp> dir /B
f1
f2


Observed behavior

C:\Temp> dir /B
f2

Case 2: In case of renaming directories where the new path points to an empty directory, the operation should not fail

Command-line test case

C:\Temp> mkdir mydir
C:\Temp> echo "hello" > mydir\f1
C:\Temp> mkdir emptydir

C:\Temp>type c2.cpp
#include <filesystem>

int main() {
   std::filesystem::rename("mydir","emptydir");
}

C:\Temp>cl /EHsc /W4 /std:c++17 .\c2.cpp
Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.23.28019.1 for x64
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

c2.cpp
Microsoft (R) Incremental Linker Version 14.23.28019.1
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

/out:c2.exe
c2.obj

C:\Temp>.\c2.exe

Expected behavior

C:\Temp> dir /B /S
C:\Temp\emptydir
C:\Temp\emptydir\f1


Observed behavior

C:\Temp> dir /B /S
C:\Temp\emptydir
C:\Temp\mydir
C:\Temp\mydir\f1

STL version

https://github.com/microsoft/STL/commit/e745bad3b1d05b5b19ec652d68abb37865ffa454

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the implementation and tests for std::filesystem::rename, using the two Windows command-line cases in this issue as reproductions. Verify the hard-link case remains unchanged and that renaming onto an empty directory produces the expected directory listing without an error.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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