collectstatic --clear throws NotImplementedError, "This backend doesn't support absolute paths."

[Topher]

storage.py docstrings state of storage.path()

Storage systems that can't be accessed using open() should *not* implement this method.

collectstatic.py does not catch this to use the implemented storage.delete() method on line 221

full_path = self.storage.path(fpath)
if not os.path.exists(full_path) and os.path.lexists(full_path):
    # Delete broken symlinks
    os.unlink(full_path)
else:
    self.storage.delete(fpath)

Patch?:

try:
    full_path = self.storage.path(fpath)
    if not os.path.exists(full_path) and os.path.lexists(full_path):
        # Delete broken symlinks
        os.unlink(full_path)
    else:
        self.storage.delete(fpath)
except NotImplementedError:
    self.storage.delete(fpath)

[Tim Graham]

I think something like this would make it more obvious where the exception is expected:

try:
    full_path = self.storage.path(fpath)
except NotImplementedError:
    self.storage.delete(fpath)
else:
    if not os.path.exists(full_path) and os.path.lexists(full_path):
        # Delete broken symlinks
        os.unlink(full_path)
    else:
        self.storage.delete(fpath)

A test is also needed.

[Topher]

I may be wrong, I don't think a test would be feasible as testing would require simulating multiple storage backends that aren't currently tested?

Off topic, I'm starting to wonder why collectstatic has any symlink logic at all. Shouldn't staticfiles offer a symlink storage backend to be used, if the functionality was desired, instead?

[Tim Graham]

I can't think of a reason why creating a subclass of a storage backend that raises NotImplementedError to test this wouldn't be feasible, but I didn't look into the details.

Maybe the symlink logic added in 0922bbf18d3ae8f37e1823df2dbc270d33334548 isn't ideal. Feel free to submit a patch if you feel it could be done better.

[Berker Peksag]

Pull request: ​https://github.com/django/django/pull/6288

[Tim Graham <timograham@…>]

In 28bcff82:

Fixed #26297 -- Fixed collectstatic --clear crash if storage doesn't implement path().

[Tim Graham <timograham@…>]

In b4bb2ad1:

[1.9.x] Fixed #26297 -- Fixed collectstatic --clear crash if storage doesn't implement path().

Backport of 28bcff82c5ed4694f4761c303294ffafbd7096ce from master