File::Find::fullname is always undef on Windows 10

[jimav]

If File::Find is run with follow => 1 on Windows, $File::Find::fullname is always undef.

As the docs say, "follow ... is also a no-op on Win32", literally, i.e. $fullname is not implemented at all and so is always undef.

This seems unsafe because scripts written to handle symlinks must check File::Find::fullname for undef to avoid wrongly following broken links, and as a result such scripts think every file is a broken link on Windows.

I'm wondering if it would be better to set fullname to name on Win32 (and also guarantee to stat the file so the "_" handle is valid) so scripts can more often work as-is without having to hack around with $^O in the wanted function.

[xenu]

follow => 1 isn't actually a no-op on Windows since Perl 5.34, the docs were wrong (it's fixed in blead).

[jkeenan]

follow => 1 isn't actually a no-op on Windows since Perl 5.34, the docs were wrong (it's fixed in blead).

Yes, see ac083dc, committed Aug 2 2022. Closing this ticket.

[jimav]

@jkeenan - that commit only changes the pod. Was something else also changed so that $File::Find::fullname isn't always undef on Windows?

[jkeenan]

@jkeenan - that commit only changes the pod. Was something else also changed so that $File::Find::fullname isn't always undef on Windows?

@xenu, can you comment on the above?