`bundle init` fails on a symlinked directory inside a template's `template/`

[peloyeje]

Summary

A template whose template/ tree contains a symlink to a directory fails to initialize. Symlinks to files work fine. The error comes from the template walker reading the link as a regular file.

Reproduction

mkdir -p tpl/template/shared out
cat > tpl/databricks_template_schema.json <<'JSON'
{"properties": {"name": {"type": "string", "default": "x", "description": "a name"}}}
JSON
echo 'hello' > tpl/template/shared/file.txt.tmpl
ln -s shared tpl/template/linked_dir

databricks bundle init ./tpl --config-file <(echo '{"name":"x"}') --output-dir out

Actual

Error: read /path/to/tpl/template/linked_dir: is a directory

It also leaves a partial result behind: out/linked_dir is created as an empty directory before the failure.

Expected

Either the walker follows the symlink and renders the directory's contents, or it reports that symlinked directories are unsupported in templates. The current message describes an internal read failure rather than the unsupported construct, which makes it hard to act on.

Control: file symlinks work

Replacing the directory symlink with a file symlink succeeds:

rm tpl/template/linked_dir
ln -s shared/file.txt.tmpl tpl/template/linked_file.txt.tmpl
databricks bundle init ./tpl --config-file <(echo '{"name":"x"}') --output-dir out
# ✨ Successfully initialized template
# out/linked_file.txt, out/shared/file.txt

Why it matters

template_dir resolves exactly one hop and replaces a template's local template/ rather than overlaying it, so a template that points at a shared tree cannot also contribute files of its own. Symlinks are the natural way to share machinery between sibling templates while each keeps its own content. File-level symlinks make that work, but because directory symlinks don't, a nested output path has to be recreated in every template and every shared leaf file linked individually.

Worth noting that the surrounding platform handles symlinked directories fine: Databricks Git folders materialize them as SYMLINK objects, and the /Workspace FUSE mount resolves them including directory traversal. The limitation is specific to the template walker.

Environment

• Databricks CLI v1.13.0
• macOS (darwin), also relevant on the Linux driver via /Workspace