Setting up RBZ package lost its symbolic links on MacOS

#1

Hello there,

The following problem occurs with Sketchup 2017 & 2019 (don’t try on 2018 version)

I am creating a rbz package that contains a MacOS framework.

When the package is setup using the extension manager, it is uncompressed in the /Users/Mootools/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 20XX/SketchUp/Plugins/ folders
During that process the unzip procedure does not keep the symbolic links at extraction and the framework get broken as shown on the image below :

symbolic%20link%20(2)

As a result the framework fails to load and the extension fails to install.

If I install manually the rbz package, there is no problem.
The symbolic links are kept (as shown below) and everything went fine.

symbolic%20link%20(1)

I believe the rbz uncompress procedure should be improved to support framework package on a next release.

Thanks,
Manuel

#2

Symlinks seems to be very rarely used in zip files, as well as in a Windows environment. Would this be functionality for mac only?

#3

did you preserve symlinks using the flag when zipping the folder?

zip -x "*.DS_Store" --symlinks

john

#4

I’m with John on this. Sounds like a problem with whatever you used to zip the archive.

#5

I compress with the following flags:
zip -y -r …/myplugin.rbz *

Please note that when I unzip the above produced archive in the /Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 20XX/SketchUp/Plugins/ folders everything work fine and the symbolic links are kept.

#6

–symlinks and -y are equivalent.

–symlinks is the linux flag.
if you type zip -help on MacOS only the -y flag is available.

So my archive is correct and the problem occurs during sketchup rbz installation. :wink:

#7

I did a quick test and it seems SU uses ruby to unzip the rbz which resolves any symlinks [which breaks them]…

however, it doesn’t ‘unzip’ any contained zip’s inside the .rbz…

for a test I zipped a .framework and included it in a .rbz >> installed that using Extension Manager…

in the extension I added a short script to unzip and purge the folder on first load…

`unzip "#{dir}"/*.zip -d "#{dir}"`
`rm  "#{dir}"/*.zip`
`rm  "#{dir}"/purge.rb`

the symlinks survived and the framework is intact…

not sure if MacOS ships with ‘unzip’ but it could be included [and purged] if not…

btw: both -y and the long form --symlink work on my mac [El Capitan]…

john

#8

The following rbz allows to reproduce the problem:
Test.rbz (57.9 KB)

This rbz does nothing. You can use extension manager to make sketchup install it.

Once setup, under Sketchup 2019, on setup you can open:

  • /Users/Mootools/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2019/SketchUp/Plugins/test/ folder
  • Click on test.framework
  • you’ll see that the symbolic links are removed as shown the capture below (no more link arrow on the files)

lost%20links

If you open the original rbz you’ll see the arrow, meaning that we have a link, on Modules, Resources and SkpDialogs as shown below:

existing%20links
.

#9

this should work after a SU restart…

test_zipped.rbz (62.5 KB)

if it was part of a registered extension, it may not need the restart [untested]…

john

#10

Thanks you John!

The trick you give works perfectly! I would not have find this workaround on my side!
Symbolic links are kept if the framework is embed in a zip then unzip using ruby script.

Wow ! :slight_smile: