fix(connections): Normalize a database path only as far as it resolves - #2623
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krlmlr wants to merge 3 commits into
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fix(connections): Normalize a database path only as far as it resolves#2623krlmlr wants to merge 3 commits into
krlmlr wants to merge 3 commits into
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#455) `path_normalize()` asked `normalizePath(mustWork = TRUE)` to resolve the placeholder it had just created. Resolving a path needs read permission on every directory above it, which a network drive routinely withholds, so `duckdb()` refused paths it could create a database at. Creating the placeholder is now the only step that has to succeed, and it reports the path it could not create when it fails. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01WfJ6BGAq8KoUiUitMLx9Cn
This was referenced Aug 9, 2026
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Closes #455.
path_normalize()created an empty placeholder for a database file that does not exist yet, then askednormalizePath(out, mustWork = TRUE)to resolve it. Resolving a path needs read permission on every directory above it, which a network drive routinely withholds, soduckdb()refused paths it had just proved it could create a file at.Creating the placeholder is now the only step that has to succeed. Neither
normalizePath()call asks for more than a best effort, and a path that resolves no further is used as it stands — less canonical, not wrong.The failure that does matter now surfaces on its own terms: a
dbdirin a directory that cannot be written to used to reach the user ascannot open the connectionfromwriteLines(), and now saysCannot create database fileand names the path that was passed.Tested in
tests/testthat/test-path_normalize.R. The network-drive failure has no portable equivalent — on Unix,realpath()needs only search permission on the parents — so the regression test injects it, making everymustWork = TRUEcall originating in this package fail while leaving all other callers alone. All five tests pass on this branch; three of them fail onmain.Documented in
handbook/usage/connections/README.md, which owns this topic, and in the?duckdbsection it points at. The handbook page listed #455 as still to drain, so that line is now shorter.Generated by Claude Code