MCL-8824Launcher gives 'game directory invalid' if path contains a Junction
Today I returned to Minecraft after a long break and upgraded to the latest launcher version. On trying to launch the game, I got this error:
The game directory is invalid or inaccessible.
Error details: The system cannot find the file specified
Filename on disk: .minecraft
Path: C:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft
Exists: directory
On my system, "C:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming" is a directory junction to "D:\Data\Tim\winhome\AppData\Roaming". This previously worked fine with no issues under the old launcher; I have made no changes except to update the launcher to the latest version.
As a workaround, modifying the game directory under 'launch options' and setting it to the actual location (D:\Data\Tim\winhome\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft) makes the launcher work correctly.
To reproduce:
- Go to an administrator command prompt in a scratch space on the filesystem.
- > mkdir mctest-realdir
- > mklink /J mctest-junct mctest-realdir
- Set game directory to "mctest-realdir" and verify that it launches
- Set game directory to "mctest-junct" and observe error message
Environment
OS: Windows 7
Java: using bundled version
Linked Issues
Created Issue:
Launcher gives 'game directory invalid' if path contains a Junction
Today I returned to Minecraft after a long break and upgraded to the latest launcher version. On trying to launch the game, I got this error:
"_The game directory is invalid or inaccessible.
Error details: The system cannot find the file specified
Filename on disk: .minecraft
Path: C:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft
Exists: directory_"On my system, "C:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming" is a directory junction to "D:\Data\Tim\winhome\AppData\Roaming". This previously worked fine with no issues under the old launcher; I have made no changes except to update the launcher to the latest version.
As a workaround, modifying the game directory under 'launch options' and setting it to the actual location (D:\Data\Tim\winhome\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft) makes the launcher work correctly.
To reproduce:
- Go to an administrator command prompt in a scratch space on the filesystem.
- > mkdir mctest-realdir
- > mklink /J mctest-junct mctest-realdir
- Set game directory to "mctest-realdir" and verify that it launches
- Set game directory to "mctest-junct" and observe error message
Environment
OS: Windows 7
Java: using bundled version
Today I returned to Minecraft after a long break and upgraded to the latest launcher version. On trying to launch the game, I got this error:
"_The game directory is invalid or inaccessible.Error details: The system cannot find the file specifiedFilename on disk: .minecraftPath: C:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming\.minecraftExists: directory_"On my system, "C:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming" is a directory junction to "D:\Data\Tim\winhome\AppData\Roaming". This previously worked fine with no issues under the old launcher; I have made no changes except to update the launcher to the latest version.
As a workaround, modifying the game directory under 'launch options' and setting it to the actual location (D:\Data\Tim\winhome\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft) makes the launcher work correctly.
To reproduce:
- Go to an administrator command prompt in a scratch space on the filesystem.
- > mkdir mctest-realdir
- > mklink /J mctest-junct mctest-realdir
- Set game directory to "mctest-realdir" and verify that it launches
- Set game directory to "mctest-junct" and observe error message
Today I returned to Minecraft after a long break and upgraded to the latest launcher version. On trying to launch the game, I got this error:
The game directory is invalid or inaccessible.
Error details: The system cannot find the file specified
Filename on disk: .minecraft
Path: C:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft
Exists: directoryOn my system, "C:\Users\Tim\AppData\Roaming" is a directory junction to "D:\Data\Tim\winhome\AppData\Roaming". This previously worked fine with no issues under the old launcher; I have made no changes except to update the launcher to the latest version.
As a workaround, modifying the game directory under 'launch options' and setting it to the actual location (D:\Data\Tim\winhome\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft) makes the launcher work correctly.
To reproduce:
- Go to an administrator command prompt in a scratch space on the filesystem.
- > mkdir mctest-realdir
- > mklink /J mctest-junct mctest-realdir
- Set game directory to "mctest-realdir" and verify that it launches
- Set game directory to "mctest-junct" and observe error message
![[Mod] violine1101](../../../data/avatars/users/92858.png){kind=small}
duplicates
![[Mod] Pokechu22](../../../data/avatars/users/92931.png){kind=small}
The native launcher doesn't work well with junctions, see MCL-5294 (via MCL-8824); IIRC this is a boost issue but it's not my area of expertise. But this does seem very odd, and I feel like that should only matter for things that the launcher manages, not the game directory (which the launcher shouldn't need to mess with)...
Thank you for your report!
However, this issue is a Duplicate of
MCL-5294.It has been linked to this report. If you have additional information, please add it to that report.
Please search before reporting, as it's likely that one exists already.
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It's not actually a duplicate, since that issue was about environment variable %APPDATA% no longer being supported. (It's more of a duplicate for https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MCL-5528, which I didn't find because they had a hardlink intsead of a junction, which I didn't search for.)
But I don't really care, since I have a workaround for it.
Yeah, it's technically not a duplicate, but we've been lumping both issues together since the workaround is the same.
If I recall correctly, the actual issue with junctions is in the boost library, which is somewhat annoying.
Thanks, I was interested in why it became an issue and why it couldn't (practically) be fixed. Libraries that break things like that is definitely annoying. (For reference... I have my entire AppData/* directory junctioned to another drive, and literally no other program has a problem with that. Boo boost.)
Anyway, --workdir or setting "Game Directory" workarounds are good enough.