Bug #72642 [Nab]: realpath() failing to expand path

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=72642&edit=1 ID: 72642 Updated by: pajoye@php.net Reported by: anrdaemon at freemail dot ru Summary: realpath() failing to expand path Status: Not a bug Type: Bug Package: Filesystem function related Operating System: Windows PHP Version: 7.1.0beta1 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: To begin with I have to ask you to change your tone if you like to have any kind of constructive answer. By "Junctions are like hard link", I mean we handle them the same way. About your "different attributes", everything is "just different attribute". It does not mean they behave or are the same. This function solves symbolic link only, not junction, mount point or hard link. See the code: https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/ab39b094d2dcfb806c05913c53935a2540c887f3/Zend/zend_virtual_cwd.c#L970 and it is on purpose and by design. The same applies to other platforms with hard links for example. About "realpath() expands all symbolic links and resolves references to '/./', '/../' and extra '/' characters in the input path and returns the canonicalized absolute pathname." It does not mean it does it for anything else but symbolic links. We had a long discussion back then when I wrote symbolic support for Windows and the decision was to map cross platform behaviors and usage of junctions/mount points/etc by hosters and users. If you need this kind of operations I remember an extension exposing all flags and attributes. That would give you access to the underlying APIs and do all kind of things. Many of them are not recommended as it brings another level of issues that may not supported by the engine, other extensions or external libraries (for some resulting paths). IfI leave alone the security aspects of it. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2016-07-22 17:30:41] anrdaemon at freemail dot ru Did you ever read the provided test script? Did you try to run it? I can replace /J with /D, then you will not be able to run it without elevated privileges, but the result would not change. And it is funny you mentioned readlink, because 'realpath.php': <?php $rootdir = substr($_SERVER['SystemRoot'], 0, 3); $tmpdir = getenv('TEMP'); shell_exec("mklink /J \"{$rootdir}home\" \"{$rootdir}Users\""); shell_exec("mklink /J \"{$tmpdir}\\test.dir\" \"{$rootdir}home\\Public\\Desktop\""); $file = "{$tmpdir}\\test.dir\\desktop.ini"; $rfile = realpath($file); printf("orig.file name: %s\n", $file); printf("realpath(name): %s\n", $rfile); printf("THE real name: %s\n", realpath($rfile)); printf("readlink -fe: %s\n", shell_exec("readlink -fe \"$file\"")); if($rfile != realpath($rfile)) print "Fail as is.\n"; rmdir("{$rootdir}home"); rmdir("{$tmpdir}\\test.dir"); [C:\Programs\php-7.1.0b1]$ php.cmd -f realpath.php orig.file name: C:\Users\ANRDAE~1\AppData\Local\Temp\test.dir\desktop.ini realpath(name): C:\home\Public\Desktop\desktop.ini THE real name: C:\Users\Public\Desktop\desktop.ini readlink -fe: /c/Users/Public/Desktop/desktop.ini Fail as is. [C:\Programs\php-7.1.0b1]$ For your future genious resolutions, all NTFS symlinks are junctions, just with different attributes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2016-07-22 00:31:30] pajoye@php.net Junctions are like hard link and are not resolved by realpath (or readlink). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2016-07-21 23:38:53] anrdaemon at freemail dot ru Description: ------------ realpath(), according to the documentation, is supposed to unwind every symlink and relative reference in the given string and produce an absolute and unambiguous path. Well… it doesn't perform its job quite as desired. Affected PHP versions: same behavior observed in 5.3.29, 5.6.23, 7.0.8 and 7.1.0b1. Test script: --------------- <?php $rootdir = substr($_SERVER['SystemRoot'], 0, 3); $tmpdir = getenv('TEMP'); shell_exec("mklink /J \"{$rootdir}home\" \"{$rootdir}Users\""); shell_exec("mklink /J \"{$tmpdir}\\test.dir\" \"{$rootdir}home\\Public\\Desktop\""); $file = "{$tmpdir}\\test.dir\\desktop.ini"; $rfile = realpath($file); printf("orig.file name: %s\n", $file); printf("realpath(name): %s\n", $rfile); printf("THE real name: %s\n", realpath($rfile)); if($rfile != realpath($rfile)) print "Fail as is.\n"; rmdir("{$rootdir}home"); rmdir("{$tmpdir}\\test.dir"); Expected result: ---------------- orig.file name: C:\Users\ANRDAE~1\AppData\Local\Temp\test.dir\desktop.ini realpath(name): C:\Users\Public\Desktop\desktop.ini THE real name: C:\Users\Public\Desktop\desktop.ini Actual result: -------------- orig.file name: C:\Users\ANRDAE~1\AppData\Local\Temp\test.dir\desktop.ini realpath(name): C:\home\Public\Desktop\desktop.ini THE real name: C:\Users\Public\Desktop\desktop.ini Fail as is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=72642&edit=1