pub publish doesn't follow file symlinks

[werediver]

Environment

• pub version or flutter pub version: Pub 2.4.0
• OS version: macOS 10.14.6
• Are you using the Chinese community mirror or a corporate firewall? No.

Problem

pub publish ignores file symlinks (but follows directory symlinks).

For example, in a multi-package repo I want the top level README.md to be symlinked from some of the packages (../README.md):

https://github.com/werediver/sum_types.dart/tree/5657f9d83f26cebac98ab3a0d8d5ff7e060d0859/sum_types_generator

Expected behavior

I expect pub to resolve file symlinks and include the target files in the package as if they were in place of the symlinks.

Actual behavior

Pub entirely ignores file symlinks during publishing as if they do not exist.

--trace output

Not relevant (no errors).

[werediver]

No, it does. I ended up with broken symlinks, which were legitimately ignored by pub.

[frencojobs]

How did you manage to solve this? I'm also having an error where the linked files and folders outside of the project base are recognized as broken symlinks.

[werediver]

@frencojobs I didn't use sym-links pointing outside the package directory, so it was never a problem for me. It is likely that such links are not accepted by pub for security and/or package integrity reasons.

You may consider using hard-links, if you think you have such a need.

[frencojobs]

Thanks. Even though I can't get in contact with the author of the Retrofit library, it seems like the library is structured a lot like what I needed, monorepo with symlinks. So, I actually think it's possible but maybe I'm doing something wrong.

I'm currently using hard-links because I'm in a hassle right now. But it doesn't look like the best idea.