mxdev and cookieplone with filesystem packages needs a manual symlink #76

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1. jensens commented on May 31, 2026

   

   jensens

   on May 31, 2026

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   Thanks for the detailed report! This is a misunderstanding of what the fs VCS type does — and the fault is ours for not documenting it.

   vcs = fs does not fetch, copy, or symlink anything. It is only a marker for a package that is already present inside your sources directory: mxdev just verifies that sources/<name>/ exists and otherwise leaves it alone. Consequently url is meant to be the directory name (equal to the section/package name), not a path:

   [my.secondaddon]
   vcs = fs
   url = my.secondaddon

   …and sources/my.secondaddon/ has to exist already. Setting url = /home/dev/Projects/projects/my.secondaddon does not turn that external path into a checkout, which is why you hit FilesystemError and why your manual ln -s "fixes" it — you are creating exactly what fs expects to find.

   So, to answer your question: with the current fs semantics, mxdev is intentionally not responsible for creating the symlink. If you want mxdev to manage a local package for you, you have two better options:

   • Point a normal git source at the local repository:

     [my.secondaddon]
     vcs = git
     url = /home/dev/Projects/projects/my.secondaddon

   • For uv-managed projects, mxdev can write the path straight into [tool.uv.sources] — no symlink needed at all.

   I've opened #93 to document the fs type (including this pitfall) in the README.

   Separately: whether fs should grow an "auto-symlink an external path" mode is a reasonable feature idea, but it's a change of semantics (and symlinks are awkward on Windows), so I'd track that as its own enhancement rather than a bug. Does the git/uv approach above unblock you?
2. jensens

   added a commit that references this issue on May 31, 2026

   Document the fs (filesystem) VCS type (refs #76) (#93)

   dee0945
3. jensens

   closed this as completedon May 31, 2026