Double // in symlink causes weird behaviour

[sebmaynard]

• A brief description
  Creating a symlink to a file with 2 forward slashes in it causes the symlink not to work properly
• Expected results
  That the symlink would correctly resolve to the file
• Actual results (with terminal output if applicable)
  The filesystem thinks it's a directory at the point of //
• Your Windows build number
  14393.222
• Steps / All commands required to reproduce the error from a brand new installation
  From a bash shell:

$ mkdir somedir
$ echo sometext > somedir/somefile
$ ln -s somedir//somefile somelink
lrwxrwxrwx 1 seb seb 17 Sep 30 21:28 somelink -> somedir//somefile
$ cat somelink
cat: somelink: Is a directory
$ cd somelink
$ ls -l
-rw-rw-rw- 1 seb seb 9 Sep 30 21:28 somefile

• Strace of the failing command

execve("/bin/cat",` ["cat", "somelink"], [/* 17 vars */]) = 0
brk(0)                                  = 0x209f000
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f24bf4c0000
access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=39870, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 39870, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7f24bf4c3000
close(3)                                = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0P \2\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=1840928, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 3949248, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7f24bee30000
mprotect(0x7f24befea000, 2097152, PROT_NONE) = 0
mmap(0x7f24bf1ea000, 24576, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x1ba000) = 0x7f24bf1ea000
mmap(0x7f24bf1f0000, 17088, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f24bf1f0000
close(3)                                = 0
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f24bf4b0000
mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f24bf4a0000
arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x7f24bf4a0740) = 0
mprotect(0x7f24bf1ea000, 16384, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x60a000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
mprotect(0x7f24bf422000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
munmap(0x7f24bf4c3000, 39870)           = 0
brk(0)                                  = 0x209f000
brk(0x20c0000)                          = 0x20c0000
open("/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=2919792, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 2919792, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7f24beb67000
close(3)                                = 0
fstat(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0600, st_rdev=makedev(4, 2), ...}) = 0
open("somelink", O_RDONLY)              = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0777, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
fadvise64(3, 0, 0, POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL) = 0
read(3, 0x20a1000, 65536)               = -1 EISDIR (Is a directory)
write(2, "cat: ", 5cat: )                    = 5
write(2, "somelink", 8somelink)                 = 8
open("/usr/share/locale/locale.alias", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 4
fstat(4, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=2570, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f24bf490000
read(4, "# Locale name alias data base.\n#"..., 512) = 512
read(4, "PURPOSE.  See the\n# GNU General "..., 512) = 512
read(4, " entries are case independent.\n\n"..., 512) = 512
read(4, "859-1\nfinnish         fi_FI.ISO-"..., 512) = 512
read(4, "R\nko_KR\t\tko_KR.eucKR\nlithuanian "..., 512) = 512
read(4, "SO-8859-9\n", 512)             = 10
read(4, "", 512)                        = 0
close(4)                                = 0
munmap(0x7f24bf490000, 4096)            = 0
open("/usr/share/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en_GB.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en_GB/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en_GB.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en_GB/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = 4
fstat(4, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=3595, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 3595, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 4, 0) = 0x7f24bf4cc000
close(4)                                = 0
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/share/locale-langpack/en/LC_MESSAGES/libc.mo", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, ": Is a directory", 16: Is a directory)        = 16
write(2, "\n", 1
)                       = 1
close(3)                                = 0
close(1)                                = 0
close(2)                                = 0
exit_group(1)                           = ?
+++ exited with 1 +++

• Required packages and commands to install

See our contributing instructions for assistance.

[russalex]

Some good news here, this should be fixed on the Insider builds. Just tested on 14936:

russ@russalex-book:~$ mkdir somedir
russ@russalex-book:~$ echo sometext > somedir/somefile
russ@russalex-book:~$ ln -s somedir//somefile somelink
russ@russalex-book:~$ ls -la | grep somelink
lrwxrwxrwx 1 russ russ   17 Sep 30 14:50 somelink -> somedir//somefile
russ@russalex-book:~$ cat somelink
sometext