René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"New-Item -Target parameter mishandles paths that look like wildcard patterns when creating symbolic links / reparse points","articleBody":"Note: I'm writing this bug report from the perspective of the green-lit proposal to interpret `-Target` arguments as _literal_ (verbatim) paths - see #13136. Perhaps these two issues can be tackled together.\r\n\r\nBy contrast, in _Windows PowerShell_ you must _escape_ paths that _look like_ wildcard patterns, i.e. paths that contain `[` and `]`.\r\nUsing this escaping as of PowerShell _Core_ in 7.2.0-preview.2 doesn't work either, however, because the _escaped_ path, while recognized as an existing item, is them mistakenly used _verbatim_ as the link's target, resulting in a broken link.\r\n\r\n## Steps to reproduce\r\n\r\n```powershell\r\nPush-Location ($tempDir = New-Item -Type Directory -Force \"temp:/$PID\")\r\n\r\ntry\r\n{\r\n\r\n  # Use a file name with '[' and ']' - without that, the test would succeed.\r\n  $target = Join-Path $pwd.ProviderPath '[1] file.txt'\r\n\r\n  # Create the file.\r\n  $null = New-Item -Path $target -Value hi -Force\r\n\r\n  # Try to create a symlink named 'lnk' in subdir. 'sub' (to be created on demand\r\n  # with -Force) pointing to the newly created file.\r\n  # Note:\r\n  #  If ([WildcardPattern]::Escape($target)) is used to escape the path,\r\n  #  the command *seemingly* succeeds, but the *escaped* path is mistakenly\r\n  #  used *verbatim* as the target, quietly resulting in a *broken link*.\r\n  { New-Item -ErrorAction Stop -Path sub/lnk -Type SymbolicLink -Force -Target $target } |\r\n    Should -Not -Throw\r\n\r\n} finally {\r\n\r\n  Pop-Location\r\n  Remove-Item -ErrorAction Ignore -LiteralPath $tempDir -Recurse -Force\r\n\r\n}\r\n```\r\n\r\n## Expected behavior\r\n\r\nThe test should succeed.\r\n\r\n## Actual behavior\r\n\r\nThe test fails, because (by design _unescaped_) `$target` isn't recognized as an existing item, even though the error message correctly lists the path:\r\n\r\n```none\r\n...\r\nCannot find path '.../[1] file.txt' because it does not exist.\r\n...\r\n```\r\n\r\n## Environment data\r\n\r\n```none\r\nPowerShell Core 7.2.0-preview.2\r\n```\r\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/mklement0","@type":"Person","name":"mklement0"},"datePublished":"2021-01-03T17:28:43.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":8},"url":"https://github.com/14534/PowerShell/issues/14534"}