Mangled generated path on `ln_s` with `relative: true`
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- Ruby
- Stars
- 69
- Forks
- 37
- Avg merge
- 5h 34m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 2
Description
I found this accidently when trying to wrote a dotfile linker utility.
Seems like FileUtils.ln_s will fail when the resulting relative path contains ../ (one directory hierarchy higher) as the relative path being generated is mangled.
Sample snippets to reproduce:
FileUtils.ln_s(
"/home/mipan/.dotfiles/zsh", "/home/mipan/.config/zsh",
verbose: true, noop: true, relative: true
)
Output: ln -s /home/mipan/.config/zsh/zsh
And this is not a pure logging bug, when the noop set to false:
FileUtils.ln_s(
"/home/mipan/.dotfiles/zsh", "/home/mipan/.config/zsh",
verbose: true, noop: false, relative: true
)
ln -s /home/mipan/.config/zsh/zsh
/usr/lib/ruby/3.4.0/fileutils.rb:760:in 'File.symlink': No such file or directory @ rb_file_s_symlink - (, /home/mipan/.config/zsh/zsh) (Errno::ENOENT)
from /usr/lib/ruby/3.4.0/fileutils.rb:760:in 'block in FileUtils.ln_sr'
from /usr/lib/ruby/3.4.0/fileutils.rb:765:in 'FileUtils.ln_sr'
from /usr/lib/ruby/3.4.0/fileutils.rb:709:in 'FileUtils.ln_s'
from ./dot_linker.rb:362:in '<main>'
Sample for working parameters:
FileUtils.ln_s(
"/home/mipan/.dotfiles/zsh", "/home/mipan/zsh",
verbose: true, noop: true, relative: true
)
Output: ln -s .dotfiles/zsh /home/mipan/zsh
Ruby version:
❯ ruby --version
ruby 3.4.4 (2025-05-14 revision a38531fd3f) +PRISM [x86_64-linux]
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with fileutils.rb around lines 709 and 760, where the stack trace shows FileUtils.ln_s and FileUtils.ln_sr handling the relative link. Reproduce the failing and working snippets with relative: true, checking both noop modes. Done means the higher-directory case produces the correct relative target in verbose output and creates the symlink successfully.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- ruby
- Domain
- tooling
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 68/100