SoftLink Support for Linux

Improvement Ideas
1

I would like to ask if it is possible to enhance the file management sub-system to allow the workspace directory to support SoftLinks [and, with that, network file systems.

My home workstation has a small internal [M.2] drive, but I always keep all my data files on a QNAP NAS drive, because I have that set up to automatically back up overnight and with a multi-generation backup solution.

Using Mint Linux, when I try to create a new workspace, the file dialog automatically “greys out” [marks as unavailable] any softlinks in my home folder, even if those links connect to a folder on my local machine.

The change I am suggesting would be to enhance the functionality of LibrePCB to enable the storage and retrieval of project and data files from both softlink and network-connected locations. I primarily use NFSv4 when running Mint Linux and CIFS/SMB when running Windows 10.

This is tested and not currently working with the Linux Flatpak installation (Version 0.1.5, according to the Mint installer).

Many thanks for your consideration.

2

I’m not sure if the problem is really related to the links. I quickly created a local symlink with ln -s and was able to choose this directory in LibrePCB and the workspace was created successfully. Some ideas to investigate the problem:

  • Check the permissions of your links, are they readable and writable by the user running LibrePCB? Greyed out folders somehow sound like insufficient permissions.
  • Test our official AppImage instead of Flatpak, just to be sure it’s not some sandboxing “feature” of Flatpak.
  • If you’re really running LibrePCB 0.1.5 I’d suggest to update it to the latest release :see_no_evil: