microsoft / microsoft/terminal

Cannot save settings.json from the UI when it is a symbolic link

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#17,282 6 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Area-SettingsUI Issue-Bug Product-Terminal
Dominant language
C++
Stars
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Forks
9.6k
Avg merge
3d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
29

Description

### Windows Terminal version

1.19.11213.0

### Windows build number

10.0.22631.3593

### Other Software

_No response_

### Steps to reproduce

1. Replace `settings.json` with a symbolic link to a `settings.json` file somewhere else.
2. Start terminal and open settings.
3. Perform changes and hit `Save`

### Expected Behavior

The changes get saved into the `settings.json` file that the symbolic link points to.

### Actual Behavior

Nothing happens.

However if I change the symbolic link to a hard link, the changes get saved but then I run into the issue #14730

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing the Windows Terminal UI Save flow with settings.json replaced by a symbolic link, and inspect how that file is written. Compare the behavior with a hard link and review issue #14730 for related context. Done means UI changes are saved to the file targeted by the symbolic link without regressing hard-link behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop-dev, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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