fix: touch -r: dangling symlink reference is accepted Fixes #9703

src/uu/touch/src/touch.rs

@@ -359,6 +359,7 @@ pub fn uu_app() -> Command {
 /// Possible causes:
 /// - The user doesn't have permission to access the file
 /// - One of the directory components of the file path doesn't exist.
+/// - Dangling symlink is given and -r/--reference is used.
 ///
 /// It will return an `Err` on the first error. However, for any of the files,
 /// if all of the following are true, it will print the error and continue touching
@@ -573,14 +574,21 @@ fn update_times(
 }
 
 /// Get metadata of the provided path
-/// If `follow` is `true`, the function will try to follow symlinks
-/// If `follow` is `false` or the symlink is broken, the function will return metadata of the symlink itself
+/// If `follow` is `true`, the function will try to follow symlinks. Errors if the symlink is dangling, otherwise defaults to symlink metadata.
+/// If `follow` is `false`, the function will return metadata of the symlink itself
 fn stat(path: &Path, follow: bool) -> std::io::Result<(FileTime, FileTime)> {
     let metadata = if follow {
-        fs::metadata(path).or_else(|_| fs::symlink_metadata(path))
+        match fs::metadata(path) {
+            // Successfully followed symlink
+            Ok(meta) => meta,
+            // Dangling symlink
+            Err(e) if e.kind() == ErrorKind::NotFound => return Err(e),
+            // Other error (?), try to get the symlink metadata
+            Err(_) => fs::symlink_metadata(path)?,
+        }
     } else {
-        fs::symlink_metadata(path)
-    }?;
+        fs::symlink_metadata(path)?
+    };
 
     Ok((
         FileTime::from_last_access_time(&metadata),

tests/by-util/test_touch.rs

@@ -463,6 +463,31 @@ fn test_touch_reference() {
     }
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn test_touch_reference_dangling() {
+    let temp_dir = tempfile::tempdir().unwrap();
+    let nonexistent_target = temp_dir.path().join("nonexistent_target");
+    let dangling_symlink = temp_dir.path().join("test_touch_reference_dangling");
+
+    #[cfg(not(windows))]
+    {
+        std::os::unix::fs::symlink(&nonexistent_target, &dangling_symlink).unwrap();
+    }
+    #[cfg(windows)]
+    {
+        std::os::windows::fs::symlink_file(&nonexistent_target, &dangling_symlink).unwrap();
+    }
+
+    new_ucmd!()
+        .args(&[
+            "--reference",
+            dangling_symlink.to_str().unwrap(),
+            "some_file",
+        ])
+        .fails()
+        .stderr_contains("touch: failed to get attributes of");
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn test_touch_set_date() {
     let (at, mut ucmd) = at_and_ucmd!();