[Feature Request] Symlink reference

[valoq]

One of the features that I found useful in yazi is the reference to the symlink destination:

[CatsDeservePets]

Just for the sake of completeness, here is a quick comparison of how other file managers handle this:

ranger	joshuto	yazi

ranger and joshuto only show this little arrow on the right. This could easily be implemented as a new type of the info setting (although the arrow would be aligned instead of being right next to the info due to the way info works in lf).

yazi on the other hand actually shows the target next to the name (as we already do inside the ruler). I do like this version much more as it actually adds some value.

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I just wonder how truncatepct should handle this.

As the one who implemented truncateFilename() in its current form, what do you think about this, @joelim-work?
Truncating the filename with maxWidth - runeSliceWidth([]rune(" -> ")) and then truncating the destination if there is still space available? A different logic? I cannot find a reference here as yazi does not have a setting like truncatepct.

[joelim-work]

For the symlink arrow shown in ranger/joshuto, this is practically the same as displaying @ as described in #1476. I don't see any point in adding that because it is something that is better handled by colors/icons.

As for displaying the symlink target in the way yazi does, this is a feature request so you will have to consider things like the following in the design:

• As you have realized already, how does it work when combined with the truncation feature.
  • Do you start truncating from the filename first, or the target first?
  • Should truncatepct apply to the target as well? If so, then does truncatepct apply to the full path or just the name of the file?
  • If the target has an extension, does that affect truncation?
• Currently you are using -> as the arrow, what happens if the user wants a different arrow like => or another Unicode symbol?
• What is the color/style should be used for the arrow and the target? Probably it should match the original filename, but should it be configurable?

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Also slightly off-topic but I should note that implementing a feature just because yazi does means having lf gravitate away from the original design goals to be a minimal piece of software. Trying to maintain feature parity with yazi is troublesome because yazi has a more flexible and modular design and is therefore better-equipped to add new features. Using this feature request as an example (#2190 is a similar example), yazi exposes a Lua scripting API for customizing the UI layout, so displaying the symlink target can be implemented entirely in user configuration without having to support anything in the core code. On the other hand, lf has to explicitly provide support in the code, which generally means adding more options and complicating the UI logic.