File watcher and/or TS Server not triggering updates on symlinked folder changes

[pix2D]

TS Template added by @mjbvz

TypeScript Version: 4.5.1

Search Terms

• watch
• link

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Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

• VS Code Version: 1.62.2
• OS Version: macOS 12.0.1

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Create a workspace with folder A and B and setup a basic package.json in each
2. Run npm link in folder B
3. Run npm link B in folder A
4. There is now a symbolic link at A/node_modules/B which is by default excluded from the watcher
5. Add "files.watcherInclude": ["./node_modules/B"] to the workspace settings (I tried user settings also just to be sure; I also tried absolute paths etc)
6. Make a test file in B and export a basic variable/function
7. Make a test file in A and import the above variable/function
8. Make a change in B that would cause A to change in some way (for example remove the export, or change its type)
9. A is unchanged; if the TS Server is manually restarted the changes show

I'm not sure if this is a issue in the file watcher or the TS server, or maybe if this is how it is expected to work and there is just no support for symlinks. If I can do anything else to help debug let me know.

For anyone else that runs into this the workaround I've done is to make the workspace with folder A, do all the setup, and then add A/node_modules/@org (my symlinks are all inside a org scope) as a separate folder to the workspace (instead of adding B directly). This way changes are detected immediately while typing (so before even saving), as it should be.

[mjbvz]

Does this reproduce in the latest VS Code insiders build with all extensions disabled?

[pix2D]

Yes, I just tested it and was able to reproduce (1.63.0-insider). However I did figure out another data point. In order to work with B without rebuilding after each change I added the following to tsconfig.json within compilerOptions (and sorry I forgot to mention this above) so that it looks at src instead of dist:

"baseUrl": ".",
"paths": { "B": ["node_modules/B/src"] }

If I instead change this to the following then it works (without adding anything to files.watcherInclude as well):

"baseUrl": ".",
"paths": { "B": ["../B/src"] }

I guess that just sidesteps node_modules entirely so then everything updates on the fly without files in B being saved even (auto-import suggestions, type changes etc).

[edit] I also had to add the path to include in tsconfig.json.

[aovchinn]

I have similar issue, watchFile from /typescript/lib/typescript.js:112921:90
is called with path that is not resolved node_modules/linked-module/selector.ts
but later notifications gets in with realpath, resolved value /root/linked-modules/selector.ts

I wonder if it is the same problem as I am struggling with
TypeStrong/fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin#557 (comment)