R devel - Jun 2023 - dir.exists returns FALSE on Symlink directory

I hope I'm not asking a stupid question... If I symlink a directory, is
symlink considered as directory in R? If so, why `dir.exists` returns FALSE on
directory?

I understand symlink is essentially a file, but functionally a symlink to
directory is no different to the directory itself, but a directory is also
essentially a file.

Is there any way that allow me to check if a symlink is linked to directory in
base R, like `dir.exists(..., symlink_ok = TRUE)`?

Thanks,
Dipterix

? Mon, 26 Jun 2023 10:26:07 -0400
Dipterix Wang <dipterix.wang at gmail.com> ?????:
> If I symlink a directory, is symlink considered as directory in R?
It seems to work, at least on GNU/Linux:

# (on this system, /var/lock is a symbolic link pointing to /run/lock/)
system('ls -l /var/lock')
# lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root <...> /var/lock -> /run/lock
dir.exists('/var/lock')
# [1] TRUE
> If so, why `dir.exists` returns FALSE on directory?
Which operating system? Judging by your User-Agent, it must be some
version of macOS. Can you provide the output of `ls -l` on the symbolic
link?

-- 
Best regards,
Ivan

Le 26/06/2023 ? 16:26, Dipterix Wang a ?crit?:
> I hope I'm not asking a stupid question...
Many think that there is no such thing as "stupid question". However, 
this one looks more appropriate for r-help list, does not it?
>   If I symlink a directory, is symlink considered as directory in R? If so,
why `dir.exists` returns FALSE on directory?
>
> I understand symlink is essentially a file, but functionally a symlink to
directory is no different to the directory itself, but a directory is also
essentially a file.
>
> Is there any way that allow me to check if a symlink is linked to directory
in base R, like `dir.exists(..., symlink_ok = TRUE)`?
What about :

dir.exists(Sys.readlink("your_link"))

?

Best,
Serguei.
>
> Thanks,
> Dipterix
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

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