Can't prime symlink in resulting oci
Metadata
Current evaluation
Symlinked subdirs were dropped when building OCI layers because os.walk() does not follow symlinks. Fixed by merged PR #211 (commit 1783fa2a, "oci: fix handling of symlink subdirs") in rockcraft/layers.py.
Resolution: closed resolved
Reason: Commit 1783fa2a (PR #211) added logic in rockcraft/layers.py to add each subdirectory that is a symlink to the layer archive result, since os.walk() never enters them. This preserves primed links such as /usr/share/perl/5.30 in the final OCI image.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
I'm trying to build a rock with apache2 webserver.
I'm hitting a problem where I'm trying to get a symlink into the final image but I can't.
I'm creating multiple symlinks in the same scriptlet, and the link using `ln` doesn't show up in the final image.
```yaml
override-prime: |
craftctl default
chroot $CRAFT_PRIME
ln -srf /usr/share/perl/5.30.0/ /usr/share/perl/5.30
# Enable default mpm mod
a2enmod -m -q mpm_event
```
`a2enmod` basically creates a symlink in `/etc/apache2/mods-enabled`. And these symlinks appear in the final image.
Inside the LXD container:
```bash
$ rockcraft -v prime --shell-after
root@rockcraft-keystone-55075201:~/project# ls -alh ../prime/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/mpm*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Mar 6 11:35 ../prime/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/mpm_event.conf -> ../mods-available/mpm_event.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Mar 6 11:35 ../prime/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/mpm_event.load -> ../mods-available/mpm_event.load
root@rockcraft-keystone-55075201:~/project# ls -alh ../prime/usr/share/perl/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Oct 5 10:27 5.30 -> 5.30.0
drwxr-xr-x 53 root root 128 Mar 6 11:56 5.30.0
```
After packing the rock and pushing into the docker daemon with skopeo:
```bash
$ docker run --rm -it keystone:yoga bash
root@aa3e33b7a43b:/# ls -alh /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/mpm*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Mar 6 11:35 /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/mpm_event.conf -> ../mods-available/mpm_event.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Mar 6 11:35 /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/mpm_event.load -> ../mods-available/mpm_event.load
root@aa3e33b7a43b:/# ls -alh /usr/share/perl/
drwxr-xr-x 53 root root 4.0K Mar 6 11:56 5.30.0
```
The link created with `ln` is missing from the docker image.
Am I missing something to get the symlink in the docker image ?
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Symlinked subdirs were dropped when building OCI layers because os.walk() does not follow symlinks. Fixed by merged PR #211 (commit 1783fa2a, "oci: fix handling of symlink subdirs") in rockcraft/layers.py. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Fixed by merged PR #211 (commit 1783fa2a): OCI archive creation now includes symlinked subdirectories, preserving primed links such as /usr/share/perl/5.30. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed after root cause was identified: os.walk skips symlinks during OCI image creation. Author proposed a patch to include symlinked subdirectories, resolving the problem. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without a fix after the author identified os.walk skipping symlinks in rockcraft/oci.py during OCI packing. A patch to preserve symlinked directories was proposed but never merged. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed after root cause identified; a patch to follow symlinks in rockcraft/oci.py was proposed to fix the priming failure. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Closed without resolution. User identified that os.walk in rockcraft/oci.py skips symlinks during OCI image creation and proposed a patch, but it was not merged. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Likely Fixed By:
canonical/rockcraft#211
(confidence 95%)
PR #211 merged as commit 1783fa2a adding symlinked subdirs to the OCI layer archive.
-
Related To:
canonical/rockcraft#200
(confidence 60%)
Earlier commit 3f43e30e (PR #200) fixed usrmerge subdir handling in the same code area.
-
Related To:
canonical/rockcraft#195
(confidence 55%)
LXD 5.0/overlay-packages breakage reporter hit while trying workarounds for this issue.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #211 oci: fix handling of symlink subdirs | rockcraft | merged | Merged PR #211 in commit 1783fa2a, fixing OCI archive creation to include symlinked subdirectories and resolving #208. |