os: Symbolic links to empty directories broken on Windows

[taruti]

Opening a symlink pointing to an empty directory fails - os.Open returns nil,nil.

On Windows opening a directory ends up in file_windows.go openDir function. If the directory is empty then ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND is returned and it goes to the if brances. Then syscall.GetFileAttributesEx is called.

However GetFileAttributesEx is like Lstat - not Stat.

As per https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365682%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#getfileattributes "If the path points to a symbolic link, the function returns attributes for the symbolic link.".

Thus the if fa.FileAttributes&syscall.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY == 0 { succeeds and it returns nil, nil.

[alexbrainman]

I don't understand what the problem is. I run this test:

diff --git a/src/os/os_test.go b/src/os/os_test.go
index 5689e77..7a0e221 100644
--- a/src/os/os_test.go
+++ b/src/os/os_test.go
@@ -1757,3 +1757,48 @@ func TestRemoveAllRace(t *testing.T) {
  close(hold) // let workers race to remove root
  wg.Wait()
 }
+
+func TestOpenSymlinkToEmptyDirectory(t *testing.T) {
+ switch runtime.GOOS {
+ case "android", "nacl", "plan9":
+ t.Skipf("skipping on %s", runtime.GOOS)
+ }
+ if !supportsSymlinks {
+ t.Skip("skipping because symlinks are not supported")
+ }
+
+ tmpDir, err := ioutil.TempDir("", "OpenSymlink")
+ if err != nil {
+ t.Fatal(err)
+ }
+ defer RemoveAll(tmpDir)
+
+ dir := filepath.Join(tmpDir, "dir")
+ err = Mkdir(dir, 0755)
+ if err != nil {
+ t.Fatal(err)
+ }
+ link := filepath.Join(tmpDir, "link")
+ err = Symlink(dir, link)
+ if err != nil {
+ t.Fatal(err)
+ }
+
+ f, err := Open(link)
+ if err != nil {
+ t.Fatal(err)
+ }
+ defer f.Close()
+
+ if f == nil {
+ t.Fatal("Open returns nil for *File")
+ }
+
+ names, err := f.Readdirnames(-1)
+ if err != nil {
+ t.Fatal(err)
+ }
+ if len(names) != 0 {
+ t.Fatalf("Readdirnames expected to return no names, but %v returned", names)
+ }
+}

and it succeeds. Why?

Alex

[taruti]

Looking at this further:

Windows symlinks are typed.

I.e. 1) Create a symlink to a non-directory, 2) target is deleted, and there is now an empty directory, 3) target file system thinks this is fine, 4) Symlink now should point to a directory and try to open it -> everything fails.

This seems like a limitation in Windows, closing it.