Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 23072
Link to graphics breaks if drawing file moved
Last modified: 2017-05-20 11:29:37 UTC
If a drawing file is referenced by a symbolic link, OO shows graphics as broken links. To reproduce: 1. Create a drawing file. Link in a graphic. Save file. 2. In another directory, create a symbolic link to the drawing file. 3. Open the symbolic link with OO. Observe that links are broken. OO's default setting is to store links as relative paths. This is fine for most uses, mostly survives moving/renaming directories, and in this way (I think) is a better choice than absolute paths. However, there are some cases when an absolute path is better, and the case described above is one of them. (Another case is where the drawing file is moved to a different directory.) I feel that it's unreasonable and inconvenient to expect the user to anticipate how their file will be accessed in the future and to configure links as relative or absolute accordingly. Instead, I suggest doing what Apple did when they introduced links -- which they called "Aliases" -- to their Mac OS (happened maybe 10 years ago). Mac OS aliases consisted of a unique file ID (similar to an inode in *NIX OSes) *and* a full pathname. When accessing a file through an alias, the OS first tried to locate the file by ID. If that failed, the fall-back plan was to try using the pathname. The former case handled directory name changes or moved files, and the later case handled files that had been deleted and replaced. I suggest a similar strategy for OO: store both the relative and absolute pathnames for the graphics link, where absolute paths have all symbolic link components resolved. If the relative pathname fails, fall-back and try the absolute pathname. If the user has explicitly chosen absolute over relative paths, reverse the order of resolution (perhaps store them in reversed order in the drawing file). I suggest that this strategy would address most of the cases of broken links I have had. Also see Bug 17061
Reassigned to Bettina.
OpenOffice.org Issue Tracker - Feedback Request. The Issue you raised is currently 'Unconfirmed' pending review, but has not been updated within the last 3 years. Please consider re-testing with one of the latest versions of OOo, as the problem(s) may have already been addressed. Either use the recent stable version: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html or consider trying the new OOo 3 BETA (still in testing): http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/ Please report back the outcome so this Issue may be Closed or Progressed as necessary - otherwise it may be Resolved as Invalid in the future. You may also wish to search for (and note) any duplicates of this Issue that may have advanced further by checking the Issue Tracker: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi Many thanks, Andrew Cleaning-up and Closing old Issues as part of: ~ The Grand Bug Squash, pre v3 ~ http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html
Tried it again with OO 2.3.1 on Linux PC. Continues to be a problem. Changing classification to "defect" because the broken link just looks bad. Also changing summary because it's not just symlinks that break the image links: moving the file breaks the links, too. More detailed repro instructions: 1. Create a new Draw file in $HOME. Call it $HOME/test.odg 2. Locate an image in $HOME or a subdirectory. Call it $HOME/images/picture.jpg 3. Insert image into drawing file as a link with Insert > Picture > From File... and enable "Linked". 4. Save Draw file. 5. Quit Draw. 6. Open terminal. 7. cd /tmp 8. ln -s $HOME/test.odg 9. Open /tmp/test.odg Result: observe broken linked image. Alternative repro instructions (moves file instead of symlink): 8. mv $HOME/test.odg . 9. Open /tmp/test.odg Result: observe broken linked image.
Reproducible. Reassigned.
Reset assigne to the default "issues@openoffice.apache.org".