Broken symlink in file task dir breaks mise

[jn64]

mise version: 2025.8.7 linux-x64 (2025-08-06)

Emacs creates lock files to prevent simultaneous editing. These lock files are deliberately broken symlinks with a name starting with .#, and point to a target of the form user@host.pid:boot (which does not exist as a file, it's purely informational).

Example, I'm editing my mise tasks (as file tasks) and have unsaved changes to the file .mise/tasks/foo. Emacs creates a symlink .#foo.

$ \ls -lA .mise/tasks
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 jn jn  24 Aug 11 15:13 .#foo -> 'jn@hostname.8683:1754758572'
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 jn jn 227 Aug 11 14:18 foo

This broken symlink breaks various mise commands including mise tasks and mise run, as well as tab completions (at all levels, not just task or run, because tasks are surfaced as top-level shortcuts).

$ mise tasks
mise ERROR IO error for operation on /home/jn/example/.mise/tasks/.#foo: No such file or directory (os error 2)
mise ERROR No such file or directory (os error 2)
mise ERROR Run with --verbose or MISE_VERBOSE=1 for more information

Result of typing mise TAB (the first mise after the prompt is what I typed, the rest is what appears upon TAB):

$ mise mise ERROR IO error for operation on /home/jn/example/.mise/tasks/.#foo: No such file or directory (os error 2)
mise ERROR No such file or directory (os error 2)
mise ERROR Run with --verbose or MISE_VERBOSE=1 for more information
Error: xx::process (link)

  × exited with code 1
  │ sh -c mise tasks ls --complete

Changing my editor behaviour is out of the question because it defeats the purpose of lock files if different copies of the editor have different lock files.

Can I make mise ignore either broken symlinks, or files of a specific pattern like (glob) .#* for everything internally?

This situation isn't specific to Emacs; broken links can happen for various reasons. Ideally mise could handle these errors and emit warnings.

[ismaelgv]

I am also having similar problem. I am using a repository that install several tasks globally in my system using a symlink. If this symlink is broken by some reason (move linked directory, etc.), mise will also break with the same error.

Install in ${HOME}/.config/mise/tasks

[task-install] $ ~/Repositories/testing/mise-tasks/.mise-tasks/task-install
Create tasks directory /home/user/.config/mise/tasks
Create symlink /home/user/.config/mise/tasks/global -> /home/user/Repositories/testing/mise-tasks/global

After invalidating the symlink (rename repository path):

mise ERROR IO error for operation on /home/user/.config/mise/tasks/global: No such file or directory (os error 2)
mise ERROR No such file or directory (os error 2)
mise ERROR Run with --verbose or MISE_VERBOSE=1 for more information

[Marukome0743]

This has now been fixed on main by PR #11574.

File-task discovery now skips entries that fail with NotFound, covering both dangling file symlinks such as Emacs lock files and dangling directory symlinks in project or global task directories. Other healthy tasks can still be listed, executed, and exposed through completion metadata.

Valid file and directory symlinks continue to be followed. Permission errors, symlink loops, and other filesystem failures are still reported rather than being silently ignored.

The global-task symlink scenario described in the follow-up comment was included in the regression coverage. This change was merged after v2026.8.0, so it should be available in the next release.

AI-assisted — Tool: Codex; model: OpenAI/GPT-5; version: unavailable.