Question Summary
I am now unable to upload Linux directories that contain symbolic links into Google Drive. It worked in early December 2022.
I need to know if that is intentional deprecation of this feature by Google, so that I can take steps accordingly, or if it is a defect.
Steps to reproduce
- Use a Linux machine.
- Open a shell.
mkdir dir1touch dir1/regfileln -s ~/.bashrc dir1/symlink- Use a browser (does not matter but I tried Firefox and Google Chrome).
- Open up Google Drive.
- Use Upload Folder, and upload the entire
dir1 - Notice the notification in the bottom right of the browser window that indicates that it uploaded "something" (but keep reading).
- In that web browser, double click on the uploaded
dir1folder - See the
regfilebut see thatsymlinkis missing.
Notice also that the web browser did not give any indication that it was silently ignoring the symbolic links.
I've tried variations of the above to no avail (i.e., symbolic links to files and directories).
The only approach that now works is to upload a single symbolic link to a single directory. But if you have a directory with lots of symbolic links in it, Drive ignores them. That does mean that, if you need to upload a directory that contains symbolic links, then those links are not expanded out to their referent files/directories, but simply ignored.
Note: Using some local copy whereby the symbolic links are expanded on my side, is not an answer to the question I raise below, but is an impractical and inefficient workaround that causes local I/O creating temporary copies of symbolic links.
Note that https://www.howtogeek.com/194431/how-to-sync-any-folder-to-the-cloud-with-symbolic-links/ advertised this feature as working at some point.
Detailed Question
Why? Is this intentional behavior now? If so, can someone point us to some announcement whereby Google decided to disallow uploading of real directories whose contains Linux symbolic links? Or is this just a temporary glitch on the Google side?
