[BUG] Symlinks don't get updated

[OrangeFran]

Describe the bug

When symlinking a folder into ~/Dropbox the files get uploaded at first but changes don't get synced.
Normal files work fine, it probably has to do something with the symlink (ln -s).

To Reproduce

Run ln -s /path/to/your/folder ~/Dropbox.
Change a file in /path/to/your/folder.

Expected behaviour

The changed files should sync to the dropbox web service.

System (please complete the following information):

• Maestral version: 1.2.2
• OS: MacOS Catalina 10.15.7
• Desktop environment: ...
• Qt version: using MacOS app

Additional context

[samschott]

Yes, that's a know issue. See the disclaimer on symlinks in the wiki: https://github.com/SamSchott/maestral/wiki/Symlinks

The problem is that we don't automatically get file system notifications for changes in symlinked locations. This is a deliberate choice by watchdog, the library that we use to monitor the file system: gorakhargosh/watchdog#365

I could work around this or try to submit a patch upstream but its not trivial. So far, there really has not been any demand.

[OrangeFran]

I actually didn't bother with watchdog for now so please excuse me if I'm wrong but I tested this feature with a simple script and it seems that watchdog actually saw the changes.
Heres the script I copied from stackoverflow:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import time
from watchdog.observers import Observer
from watchdog.events import FileSystemEventHandler

class MyHandler(FileSystemEventHandler):
    def on_modified(self, event):
        print(f'event type: {event.event_type}  path : {event.src_path}')

if __name__ == "__main__":
    event_handler = MyHandler()
    observer = Observer()
    observer.schedule(event_handler, path='/Users/orangefran/Dev/test', recursive=False)
    observer.start()
    try:
        while True:
            time.sleep(1)
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        observer.stop()
    observer.join()

I tested this with a symlink from /Users/orangefran/test to /Users/orangefran/Dev/test and after editing the file I got a notification by watchdog.

[OrangeFran]

@samschott Thanks for the link to the wiki. I guess I'll stop using symlinks then. I'm just wondering how dropbox does Desktop and Documents syncing.

[samschott]

Hm, not sure why it detects those for you. In my tests, no events where emitted. Watchdog did a complete rewrite of their macOS backend in the last release 0.10.4 which crashes on file-modified events (gorakhargosh/watchdog#702). So Maestral is sticking with watchdog 0.10.3 for now. It's possible however that the behaviour regarding symlinks changed in that release.

Dropbox itself respects only symlinks to other folders inside Dropbox. However, creating such intra-Dropbox symlinks is not supported by the public API. Symlinks pointing outside of the Dropbox folder will be synced as a symlink files instead of being followed: https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/symlinks

[OrangeFran]

I checked and I used 0.10.4 so it could be that.
Anyway, I moved away from symlinks. Thank you for your instant replies and your support.
I guess we can close this issue now.