Developers using filesystem APIs find them to work well with symbolic links

[carlossanlop]

Proposed priorities for the issues we currently have open in the symlinks project.

P0

• ReloadOnChange of AddJsonFile is invalid in kubernetes. #36091 ReloadOnChange of AddJsonFile is invalid in kubernetes AB#1282969.
• FileSystemWatcher does not raise events when target directory is symlink (on linux) #25078 Linux: FileSystemWatcher does not raise events when target directory is symlink - PR merged
• FileSystemEntry.Attributes property is not correct on Unix #37301 Unix: FileSystemEntry.Attributes property is not correct on Unix - PR merged
• Proposed API for symbolic links #24271 APIs for symbolic links - PR

For items moved to .NET 7 please refer to #57205

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Issue Details

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Proposed priorities for the issues we currently have open in the symlinks project.

P0

• Proposed API for symbolic links #24271 APIs for symbolic links
• FileSystemEntry.Attributes property is not correct on Unix #37301 Unix: FileSystemEntry.Attributes property is not correct on Unix
• FileSystemWatcher does not raise events when target directory is symlink (on linux) #25078 Linux: FileSystemWatcher does not raise events when target directory is symlink

P1

• Cannot change LastWriteTime or LastAccessTime of a symlink #38824 Cannot change LastWriteTime or LastAccessTime of a symlink
• Canonical paths / real file casing / real path (could be addressed all together):
  • Proposed API for canonical paths #23871 APIs for canonical paths
  • Add API to get actual file casing in path #14321 APIs to get actual file casing in path
  • Request: a way to tell if two filepaths point to the same file #17873 APIs to tell if two filepaths point to the same file
• Expose reparse point tags #1908 Expose reparse point tags

P2

• Mac SDK: DirectoryInfo.EnumerateDirectories and DirectoryInfo.EnumerateFiles Method does not handle symbolic link very well #34363 OSX: DirectoryInfo.Enumerate* methods do not handle symbolic link correctly
• NTFS volume on Linux - junction does not work properly #20874 Linux: Junctions do not work on properly on NTFS volumes
• broken symlinks and non-executable files not ignored in FindProgramInPath() #29940 Unix: Broken symlinks and non-executable files not ignored in FindProgramInPath (Process.Start)

Author:	carlossanlop
Assignees:	jeffhandley, carlossanlop, adamsitnik, Jozkee
Labels:	area-System.IO
Milestone:	-

[iSazonov]

@carlossanlop In PowerShell an symlink functionality was already added but we catch a lot of bugs, some (not all) ones was fixed. So your team could look and use the experience to make the work better in .Net.

[adamsitnik]

@jozkee @carlossanlop @jeffhandley should we move the things that are not done yet to a new issue and close this one? Or just move this to 7.0.0 milestone?

[jeffhandley]

I'd prefer to update this one to reflect what was completed in 6.0.0 and file a new issue for 7.0.0 (that links to this one).

[adamsitnik]

@jeffhandley done: #57205