Can't copy symbolic link if file of same name exists

[nikolaus]

Steps to reproduce:
mkdir a
mkdir b
touch b/foo
ln -s . a/foo
bcomp a b
Click on the symbolic link "foo ( -> . )", and click "Copy right" in the toolbar. Beyond Compare will "fail to copy 1 items" because the file exists.

If a/foo is a normal file instead of a symbolic link, the copy works as expected.

[Aaron]

Hello,

In this scenario, it looks like you are copying an item into a directory that contains an item of an identical name. This would happen with folders, files, or symlinks. If you use Finder to perform the copy, it renames the destination item. BC4 does not currently support renaming the item on copy, since the name is used for the alignment.

[nikolaus]

I'm not trying to rename anything; I'm just trying to overwrite b/foo with a/foo. If a/foo and b/foo are both ordinary files, I can copy normally using BC4. If a/foo is a symbolic link, however, then the copy fails. Is that expected behaviour?

[nikolaus]

Maybe the real issue is that a symbolic link named "foo" doesn't align with a normal file named "foo". I also can't manually align them.

[nikolaus]

If they're both symbolic links, then they correctly align in the folder diff, but I still can't overwrite one with the other.

[Zoë]

Right. Symbolic links are treated as a separate type, so they don't align with either files or folders, and you can't overwrite one of those with a symlink just like you can't overwrite a file with a folder (contrary to what Finder does).

Are you trying to copy the symlink as a symlink, or copy the file contents? If the latter, you can turn on "Follow Symbolic Links" in the Session Settings dialog, on the Handling tab.

[nikolaus]

Right. Symbolic links are treated as a separate type, so they don't align with either files or folders, and you can't overwrite one of those with a symlink just like you can't overwrite a file with a folder (contrary to what Finder does).

Oh, ok, gotcha! I didn't realize that. Thanks!

I was just trying to copy the symlink over. Also, it looks like if they're both symlinks then I still can't overwrite—I have to delete the target and then copy.