Zettlr: Add support for symlinks

[klaus7]

Hello and thanks for zettlr,
I just want to suggest adding support for symlinks as I noticed my symlinks to my markdown files don't get followed. Maybe make it an option in the preferences if a user wants symlinks to be followed?

I've got a quite big directory tree with a lot of markdown files spread in different directories, that's why I wrote a script that will link all these files in one directory for easier access in Zettlr, but unfortunately those links don't seem to be found.

Best regards,
Klaus

[nathanlesage]

I'll see into it!

[samarulmeu]

This will be a nice feature, indeed. When I'm writing I'm using drafts folders where I temporary copy the piece I'm working on. With symlinks no need for duplicates.

[nathanlesage]

Originally, I thought the "Virtual Directories" functionality would provide this, b/c this way you could create symlinks from within the app itself … does anybody use this feature, like, _at all_?

[samarulmeu]

I looked a little in the Virtual Directories and I did some tests, but somehow it did not appeal to me. It seems that it adds an extra layer (and also a new file - .ztr-virtual-directories) to what a symlink already offers. And, working in Linux, I'm used to symlinks.
Maybe you could provide both functionalities for people that find it easier to use Virtual Directories.

[nathanlesage]

Yup, it also makes my work easier as I don't have to carve out the Virtual Directories again =D

[klaus7]

I've also tried out the virtual directories right now. It's an interesting feature I was not aware of, but at present I find it a little cumbersome to work with. E.g. I cannot right-click on a file and add it to the virtual directory - this again makes it almost impossible in a big directory to add the files to it with just drag'n'drop.

[nathanlesage]

This is correct, but I'm afraid I can't clone myself to work double-time on all the features :(

[CircleCode]

also, symlinks to folder are ignored too.
Please consider following folder symlinks.

[RyanGreenup]

The lack of symlink support is a real shame, I run a bash script to filter out tags concurrently and return the matches as symlinks in another directory like this:

# Find Tags
 tagval=$(
    for i in $(cat 00TagMatchList); do
        rg --pcre2 --sort-files --no-filename '(?<=[\n\s]#)[a-zA-z]+(?=[\s\n$])' -o $i;
    done | sort -u | fzf)

# Match to Files
   cat 00TagMatchList | xargs rg ":$tagval:|\s#$tagval\s" -l > 00TagMatchList;

# Return Symlinks
     mkdir 00TagMatch
    rm 00TagMatch/* 
     ln -s $(realpath $(cat 00TagMatchList)) ./00TagMatch
    rm 00TagMatchList
     cd 00TagMatch; 
    sag -f "\s#$tagval" ./

Ideally I'd be able to open that directory in zettlr to go through the files but I can't (this is however supported in MarkText, unfourtunately however Marktext doesn't otherwise support #tags.

Tangentially related, is there a way to concurrently filter tags? For example if I wanted all notes related to #Chocolate and #Cake could I select two tags from the tag cloud? I could just copy and paste from tags I type into the text editor but ideally the tag cloud would filter for occurence (like that script above or Evernote on iOS or Boostnote v14

[nathanlesage]

With regard to the symlink support, please watch this issue here: https://github.com/Zettlr/Zettlr/issues/392

As soon as this is resolved, symlink support is included in Zettlr. The major reason why I haven't been able to do this is because the full file layer is currently a sham, and I have to get things straight there!

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This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

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[tsbertalan]

Note--Zettlr does "follow" hardlinks just fine, so that might be a workaround for some. For me, it doesn't work, because many programs will follow the "best practice" of replacing a file entirely instead of writing into it in-place (notionally, to guarantee atomic writes). This means that the links will be broken. Dropbox is one such program.

[nathanlesage]

Planned to do that in the FSAL rewrite, but guess what I forgot to add …

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically closed due to inactivity. If you believe that this issue is relevant for many users and should not be closed, feel free to comment so that the admins will be notified.