v0.17.0: symbolic link to wallet.dat re-enabled #14429

in version v0.17.0 it's possible to have symbolic link to wallet.dat file. It's not clear if it's a mistake, or a new feature. The check against symbolic link, was introduced silently (not described in release-notes.md) in v0.15.0, and permitted again silently (not described in release-notes.md v0.17.0). #11343 Thanks, Isidoro Ghezzi

Considering:

$ ls -l
wallet_sym.dat -> wallet.dat

The following tests fail:

Test 1 :

bitcoind -regtest -wallet=wallet_sym.dat
Error: Invalid -wallet path ... -wallet path should point to ...

Test 2:

bitcoind -regtest -wallet=w1
bitcoin-cli -regtest loadwallet wallet_sym.dat
error code: -4
error message:
Wallet file verification failed: Invalid -wallet path 'wallet_sym.dat'. -wallet path should point to ...

Could you share your test?

Note that it is possible to have links if it's a directory (where wallet.dat and database/log.?????????? files can be stored).

it's the usual wallet.dat (a symbolic link) file in ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/. I will try the tests you suggested in the week end :-) thanks

-wallet=<path> arguments can't be symbolic links to files, but if <path> is a directory and the directory contains a wallet.dat which is a symbolic link, that isn't currently treated like an error. It could be treated like an error, though, if we wanted to forbid it as a precaution.

But I would say this change in behavior in 0.17 is neither a mistake nor a new feature. Just a minor, backwards compatible change that wasn't mentioned in the release notes, because the only effect is to allow a particular configuration of symlinks which is probably fine, but not something we would go out of our way to document or recommend.