Fix: GUI finds 0 broken symlinks when CLI finds them correctly

[Copilot]

The GUI (krokiet) fails to find broken symlinks that the CLI detects correctly, returning 0 results when scanning directories like /home/user/.config/.

Root Causes & Fixes

1. DEFAULT_EXCLUDED_ITEMS contained an overly broad pattern

/home/*/.* was intended to exclude top-level hidden items in home directories, but the regex_check implementation allows * to match path separators. This caused it to match any file inside any hidden directory — e.g., /home/juan/.config/alacritty matched because /. appears in /.config. New users with default GUI settings scanning inside any ~/.config/ or similar hidden directory got 0 results.

Fix: Removed /home/*/.* from DEFAULT_EXCLUDED_ITEMS. The more targeted /home/*/.cache/* and /home/*/.var/app/ entries remain.

2. Relative symlink targets resolved against process CWD instead of symlink's parent

In check_invalid_symlinks, when following a symlink chain to detect infinite recursion, relative targets returned by read_link() were passed directly to the next read_link() call. The OS resolves these relative to the process CWD, not the symlink's parent directory — wrong for any symlink not in the CWD.

Fix: Capture parent_dir before each read_link() and join relative results with it:

let parent_dir = current_path.parent().map(|p| p.to_path_buf());
current_path = match current_path.read_link() {
    Ok(t) => {
        if t.is_relative() {
            if let Some(parent) = parent_dir { parent.join(t) } else { t }
        } else {
            t
        }
    }
    Err(_) => return None,
};

3. Added regression test

Added test_find_invalid_symlinks_relative_path to verify broken symlinks with relative targets (e.g., ../nonexistent/path) are correctly detected.

Original prompt

---

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>GUI fails to find broken symlinks that CLI detects correctly</issue_title>
<issue_description>## Bug Description

The GUI (krokiet) fails to find broken symbolic links that the CLI (czkawka_cli) correctly detects.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run CLI search for broken symlinks:

   czkawka_cli symlinks -d /home/juan/.config

Result: Found 9 invalid symlinks ✓

2. Open krokiet GUI
3. Select "Symlinks" tab
4. Add /home/juan/.config as search directory
5. Click "Search"
   Result: Found 0 invalid symlinks ✗

Expected Behavior

GUI should find the same 9 broken symlinks that CLI detects.

Actual Behavior

GUI finds 0 broken symlinks.

CLI Output (Working)

Found 9 invalid symlinks.
"/home/juan/.config/alacritty"          "../.mydotfiles/com.ml4w.hyprlandstarter/.config/alacritty"             Non Existent File
"/home/juan/.config/dunst"              "../.mydotfiles/com.ml4w.hyprlandstarter/.config/dunst"         Non Existent File
"/home/juan/.config/hypr"               "../.mydotfiles/com.ml4w.hyprlandstarter/.config/hypr"          Non Existent File
"/home/juan/.config/kitty"              "../.mydotfiles/com.ml4w.hyprlandstarter/.config/kitty"         Non Existent File
"/home/juan/.config/ml4w"               "../.mydotfiles/com.ml4w.hyprlandstarter/.config/ml4w"          Non Existent File
"/home/juan/.config/rofi"               "../.mydotfiles/com.ml4w.hyprlandstarter/.config/rofi"          Non Existent File
"/home/juan/.config/waybar"             "../.mydotfiles/com.ml4w.hyprlandstarter/.config/waybar"                Non Existent File
"/home/juan/.config/wlogout"            "../.mydotfiles/com.ml4w.hyprlandstarter/.config/wlogout"               Non Existent File
"/home/juan/.config/mozilla/firefox/ezioo5ep.default-release/lock"              "127.0.1.1:+10416"              Non Existent File

Environment

• OS: Arch Linux
• Desktop: KDE Plasma (Wayland)
• krokiet version: 11.0.1 (9e40abe U 2026-02-20)
• czkawka_cli version: 11.0.1

GUI Configuration

The GUI was using the default preset (Preset 0) with the same search path as CLI.

config_general.json:

{
  "default_preset": 0,
  "preset_names": [
    "Preset 1",
    "Preset 2",
    "Preset 3",
    "Preset 4",
    "Preset 5",
    "Preset 6",
    "Preset 7",
    "Preset 8",
    "Preset 9",
    "Preset 10",
    "CLI Folders"
  ],
  "window_width": 2552,
  "window_height": 925,
  "language": "es-ES",
  "dark_theme": true,
  "show_only_icons": false,
  "settings_load_windows_size_at_startup": true,
  "settings_load_tabs_sizes_at_startup": true,
  "settings_limit_lines_of_messages": true,
  "manual_application_scale": 1.0,
  "use_manual_application_scale": false,
  "play_audio_on_scan_completion": true
}

config_preset_0.json (relevant settings)

{
  "included_paths": [
    "/home/juan/.config"
  ],
  "excluded_paths": [
    "/dev",
    "/proc",
    "/snap",
    "/sys"
  ],
  "excluded_items": "*/.git/*,*/node_modules/*,*/lost+found/*,*/Trash/*,*/.Trash-*/*",
  "recursive_search": true,
  "use_cache": true,
  "ignore_other_file_systems": false
}

Additional Notes

• Both CLI and GUI are using the exact same search path: /home/juan/.config
• Recursive search is enabled in the preset
• The invalid_symlink column configuration exists in the preset, suggesting the feature should work
• GUI language is set to Spanish (es-ES), but this shouldn't affect symlink detection
• All symlinks point to relative paths (../...). Could this be related to path resolution differences between CLI and GUI?</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

• Fixes GUI fails to find broken symlinks that CLI detects correctly #1844

---

⚡ Quickly spin up Copilot coding agent tasks from anywhere on your macOS or Windows machine with Raycast.