fs.stat(filepath).isSymbolicLink() always returns false

[AlttiRi]

• Version: v15.9.0, v14.15.5
• Platform: Windows 10 x64 2004

What steps will reproduce the bug?

Run this script in a folder with a symbolic link to a file/directory.

Use mklink file_slink.js file.js to create a slink for a file.
Use mklink /D dir_slink dir to create a slink for a directory.

#!/usr/bin/env node

const fs = require("fs").promises;
const path = require("path");

(async function() {
 const workDirPath = process.cwd();

 /** @type{Dirent[]} */
 const dirents = await fs.readdir(workDirPath, {withFileTypes: true});
 for (const dirent of dirents) {
 if (dirent.isSymbolicLink()) {
 console.log("Symbolic Link found with dirent.isSymbolicLink!");
 }
 }

 /** @type{string[]} */
 const files = await fs.readdir(workDirPath);
 for (const file of files) {
 const filepath = path.resolve(workDirPath, file);
 /** @type{Stats} */
 const stat = await fs.stat(filepath);
 if (stat.isSymbolicLink()) {
 console.log("Symbolic Link found with fs.stat.isSymbolicLink!");
 }
 }
 
})();

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

Always. No.

What is the expected behavior?

stat.isSymbolicLink() returns true for a symbolic link.

Output:

Symbolic Link found with dirent.isSymbolicLink!
Symbolic Link found with fs.stat.isSymbolicLink!

What do you see instead?

Symbolic Link found with dirent.isSymbolicLink!

Additional information

fs.stat(filepath).isSymbolicLink() should return true for a symbolic link.

[AlttiRi]

Okay, thanks to this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/43443328/11468937 in order to my example will work it requires to change fs.stat to fs.lstat.

So, although it is not a bug, but it's not obvious behaviour for people that works with the file system the first time.

I think it should be noted in the documentation https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_fspromises_stat_path_options that stat method follows by a symbolic link and isSymbolicLink() will always return false. Use lstat to prevent following by a symbolic link.

[RaisinTen]

Did you see this: https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_stats_issymboliclink

stats.isSymbolicLink()

This method is only valid when using fs.lstat().