Failure to uninstall symlinks in .dmg packages (JSS 8.61)

[robo]

We noticed today that if a .dmg installer package contains symlinks, and that package is installed and later uninstalled by policy, those symlinks get left behind on the target. Normal files and aliases are removed as expected, but the symlinks are left untouched.

This is obviously problematic in that it causes the entire folder hierarchy that contained the symlink(s) to be left in place as well.

Has anyone noticed this behaviour before, or with other versions of the JSS? We're currently on version 8.61.

-Robin

[carlo_anselmi]

Hello Robin,
I have noticed that 10.8 ML seems to have some troubles with handling aliases/symlinks here.
I usually use an alias or symlink to my Microsoft User Data folder from an encrypyed .dmg to its ordinary location within /Documents folder.
Although I can correctly mount the dmg and open MUD from the Finder when I double-click its alias/symlink, if I open Outlook it says the identity is missing and the dmg is not automatically mounted.
So, in Outlook, the symlink only works when the dmg is already mounted.
Perhaps this has nothing to do with your issue but it is something that changed from 10.6.x
Ciao
Carlo

[robo]

Hi Carlo,

That sounds like an unrelated issue to me. Keep in mind that aliases and symlinks are rather different animals, although they seem similar in basic usage. A symlink is a very simple thing dating back to the prehistory of UNIX that simply contains the a path to another file. If that other file gets renamed, moved, or is on a volume that is no longer mounted, the symlink just stops working. An alias, on the other hand, is a more complex entity that originated in the early days of MacOS. It stores a whole bunch of metadata about the file it's pointing to in its resource fork, so that if the file is moved, renamed, or if the volume it's on is unmounted, the alias will probably still work. I do a similar thing with my MUD folder (putting it in a sparsebundle) so that Time Machine can back up the Office 2008 database file efficiently, and find that it works fine as long as an alias is used - launching an Office app triggers the mounting of the disk image. This has been working from 10.5 through to 10.8.2 currently.

[carlo_anselmi]

Hi Robin, many thanks for your reply and clear explanation.
I forgot to say my dmg with MUD is not on the local HDD but on an AFP share, so that there's a daily backup there.
Therefore the behavior I described (needing to have the dmg mounted to resolve the alias from within Outlook 2011) it's probably related to this. From the Finder it works just fine.
If you have the chance, I would be very interested in knowing what happens if you move your dmg to a network share.
Thank you again!
Ciao
Carlo

[mzago]

Contacting your JAMF rep is probably the best bet. They'll let you know if it's a bug, or if their code doesn't account for symlinks then feature request might be a good idea.