"collectstatic" fails when there is a dangling symlink (in the source)

[Daniel Hahler]

If there exists a dangling symlink in one of STATICFILES_DIRS, manage.py collectstatic aborts as follows:

% python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
Copying '/tmp/django-static.in/bar'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "…/django-master/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 429, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "…/django-master/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 421, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "…/django-master/django/core/management/base.py", line 288, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **options.__dict__)
  File "…/django-master/django/core/management/base.py", line 337, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "…/django-master/django/core/management/base.py", line 532, in handle
    return self.handle_noargs(**options)
  File "…/django-master/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 168, in handle_noargs
    collected = self.collect()
  File "…/django-master/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 107, in collect
    handler(path, prefixed_path, storage)
  File "…/django-master/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 314, in copy_file
    with source_storage.open(path) as source_file:
  File "…/django-master/django/core/files/storage.py", line 35, in open
    return self._open(name, mode)
  File "…/django-master/django/core/files/storage.py", line 173, in _open
    return File(open(self.path(name), mode))
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'/tmp/django-static.in/bar'

I think there should be at least an option to skip dangling symlinks, or skip them by default and log a warning message.

[Tim Graham]

Is this really on master? #20780 seems like a duplicate which says it's fixed.

[Daniel Hahler]

Yes, I have tested it yesterday on master.

I came across #20780 also, but it seems to be about handling dangling symlinks in the target (STATIC_ROOT), not the source (STATICFILES_DIRS).

[Aymeric Augustin]

I think that's the correct behavior. "Errors shouldn't pass silently" -- PEP20.

A dangling symlink is an invalid input for the collectstatic process. It indicates a problem. Django cannot know what the proper resolution for this problem is.

If you still disagree, please start a discussion on the django-developers mailing list.