invalid cross-device link when downloading photos into folder symlinked from another device

[anarcat]

I have recently moved my massive ~/Photos directory to a separate hard drive, so the setup is currently:

    lrwxrwxrwx 1 anarcat anarcat 11 2019-02-07 19:37 /home/anarcat/Photos -> /srv/Photos

I used to simply import pictures in that directory with RPD, but now it fails to import any picture with the following errors:

    Unable to create the photo DSCF8345.RAF in /home/anarcat/Photos/2019/02/09/sutton. The download file was DSCF8345.RAF in disk. It was not downloaded.
    Error: 18 Invalid cross-device link

Obviously, it’s simple to change the target directory in the GUI: just use /srv/Photos instead of ~/Photos but I feel it’s strange that such a mistake should occur - shouldn’t RPD be able to follow that symlink without such a glitch?

This was originally reported on the Pixls.us forum, where I was requested to file this as a bug:

https://discuss.pixls.us/t/invalid-cross-device-link-when-downloading-photos/11338

I also noticed this was previously mentioned as part of multiple bugs in https://bugs.launchpad.net/rapid/+bug/1320042.

[Damon Lynch (dlynch3)]

Please include in your bug report the log files, which are found in the log directory ~/.cache/rapid-photo-downloader/log. You can open this directory by clicking on the link in the "Report a Problem" dialog window. Please also include the configuration file found in the directory ~/.config/Rapid Photo Downloader/.

[anarcat (anarcat)]

logfile with the errors

[anarcat (anarcat)]

the config file, modified back to the original location (/home/anarcat/Photos) which triggered the failure. current location is /srv/Photos and works.

[Damon Lynch (dlynch3)]

I'm puzzled by this bug. When I use python to create a temporary directory within a directory pointed to by a symlink on my system, it first follows the symlink and then creates the temp dir, which is exactly the behavior I expect. In your case, for some reason it has not done that. Instead, it has created a temporary directory in your home directory. That is unexpected. Is there some kind of permission issue at play here, such as a mount folder being owned by root and not your user?

[maruino2 (maruino2)]

I ran into the same bug and resolved it (at least for myself) by replacing os.rename() with shutil.move() in line 753 of renameandmovefile.py (version 0.9.17). I got the idea from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42392600/oserror-errno-18-invalid-cross-device-link

[Damon Lynch (dlynch3)]

I'm glad to hear you were able to resolve the problem @maruino2. A proper fix is still needed however, because doing a move of a file from location A to location B after having just copied it from location C is highly inefficient. Better to copy from C to B without the intermediary A. Please look at the code copyfiles.py and examine how to handle the situation that is arising with your file system setup.