Relative symlinks are not working.

Hello,

thank you for the great plugin.

We are using the File Manager Advanced plugin together with Shortcodes
to provide files to front end users.

This is the shortcode, for Example:

[file_manager_advanced login="yes" roles="um_ua_kunde_name" path="/data/sftp/downloads/WP/transfer_name" path_type="outside" operations="download"]

The “transfer_name” directory contains symbolic links:

www-data@webhost:/data/sftp/downloads/WP/transfer_name$ tree
.
├── _Download Kunde -> ../../name
├── SOFTWARE_Allgemein -> ../../Allgemein_ORK
├── SOFTWARE_ALLGEMEIN2 -> /data/sftp/downloads/Allgemein_ORK
├── SOFTWARE_PKV -> ../../typ_pkv
├── SOFTWARE_PKV2 -> /data/sftp/downloads/typ_pkv
└── VESPUCCI PZN Connect Allgemein -> ../../Allgemein_VPC

6 directories, 0 files
www-data@webhost:/data/sftp/downloads/WP/transfer_name$

Those “relative path” symbolic links stopped working.

In the case of a link target like “../../Allgemein_ORK“, the symlink is shown in the File Manager as a “Broken alias“.

However, the symlink is valid, and the OS user running wordpress, “www-data”, is able to use it to get to the target directory.
The OS user can also access the files in the directory, for examle this PDF:

www-data@webhost:/data/sftp/downloads/WP/transfer_name$ ls -la SOFTWARE_Allgemein
lrwxrwxrwx 1 innoftp innoftp 19 Mar  3  2021 SOFTWARE_Allgemein -> ../../Allgemein_ORK
www-data@webhost:/data/sftp/downloads/WP/transfer_name$ cd SOFTWARE_Allgemein
www-data@webhost:/data/sftp/downloads/WP/transfer_name/SOFTWARE_Allgemein$ pwd
/data/sftp/downloads/WP/transfer_name/SOFTWARE_Allgemein
www-data@webhost:/data/sftp/downloads/WP/transfer_name/SOFTWARE_Allgemein$ ls -latr
total 4308
-rw-rwx---+   1 innoftp innoftp 4391207 Jun  8 14:37 'SOFTWARE  2021.2 1_Betriebshandbuch.pdf'
drwxrwx---+   2 innoftp innoftp    4096 Jun  8 14:39  .
drwxrwx---+ 153 innoftp innoftp    4096 Oct 25 12:29  ..
www-data@webhost:/data/sftp/downloads/WP/transfer_name/SOFTWARE_Allgemein$ head -n1 'SOFTWARE  2021.2 1_Betriebshandbuch.pdf'
%PDF-1.5
www-data@webhost:/data/sftp/downloads/WP/transfer_name/SOFTWARE_Allgemein$

This used to work in File Manager as well.

A symlink with an absolute path as a target, like “/data/sftp/downloads/Allgemein_ORK“,
works in the file manager to get me to the destination.

It correctly displays the directory contents.

Unfortunately, when I attempt to open the PDF file, I get to a “File Not Found” page.

When I attempt to Download the file, it works and the file gets downloaded correctly.

Very curious.

So I have two issues:

Why do relative links no longer work?
Can you fix this?

And why does only “download” work, but “open” does not?
Am I using the shortcodes incorrectly?

Thank you very much in Advance.

Best regards,

Christoph