Re: project.el project-find-files and symlinks

[Dmitry Gutov]

Hi!

On 21.05.2021 14:57, Juris Bune wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I've been using emacs for few months now and slowly building up my skill and 
> knowledge of ecosystem. It has been great so far.
>
> Recently I started using project.el (v0.6) and found one annoying thing - 
> project-find-files does not include file symlinks. I understand that it is due 
> to fact that under the hood it uses GNU find and current implementation of 
> project--files-in-directory has a somewhat hard-coded values for find flags.

> To solve my case I would add "-L" option appropriately to have find utility 
> list also symlinks. Unfortunately this is not configurable without (as I understand) 
> changing package.el. Are there any other options?

You can try out a patch like

diff --git a/lisp/progmodes/project.el b/lisp/progmodes/project.el
index eab60756c8..616c6f8d32 100644
--- a/lisp/progmodes/project.el
+++ b/lisp/progmodes/project.el
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ project--files-in-directory
          ;; expanded and not left for the shell command
          ;; to interpret.
          (localdir (file-name-unquote (file-local-name 
(expand-file-name dir))))
-         (command (format "%s -H %s %s -type f %s -print0"
+         (command (format "%s -H -L %s %s -type f %s -print0"
                           find-program
                           (shell-quote-argument
                            (directory-file-name localdir)) ; Bug#48471

and see if you like the effect. I'm not sure how to make it better 
configurable, though. The current literal that's used looks like

  "%s -H -L %s %s -type f %s -print0"

...and that's not something a random user will know how to change 
safely. It's also very find-specific.

I suppose you'd also want the project-vc backend (e.g. in Git repos) to 
follow symlinks as well?

I also wonder whether there have been any discussions in the past about 
adding -L to grep-find-template.

> Also, would it be somehow possible to make project.el use fd 
> <https://github.com/sharkdp/fd> instead of find?

People have asked about this before. Please read:

https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=44210#26

...and email to the bug address if you'd like to contribute to that 
discussion.