copyPath/copyPathSync: expose parameter followLinks

[gmpassos]

Directory.listSync only returns Link entries if followLinks: false is passed.

copyPath needs a followLinks parameter to configure the call of Directory.listSync and allow the copy of Link entries, as expected by line else if (file is Link) {

---

• [✅ ] I’ve reviewed the contributor guide and applied the relevant portions to this PR.

[gmpassos]

FYI: @natebosch

[natebosch]

@jakemac53 I think uses are unlike to break if we change the default behavior. We already have a default behavior for recursive with no override. Do you think it would make sense to assume followLinks: true too?

[github-actions]

PR Health

Breaking changes ✔️

Package	Change	Current Version	New Version	Needed Version	Looking good?
io	Non-Breaking	1.0.5	1.1.0-wip	1.1.0	✔️

Changelog Entry ✔️

Package	Changed Files

Changes to files need to be accounted for in their respective changelogs.

Coverage ✔️

File	Coverage
pkgs/io/lib/src/copy_path.dart	💚 85 % ⬆️ 1 %

This check for test coverage is informational (issues shown here will not fail the PR).

API leaks ✔️

The following packages contain symbols visible in the public API, but not exported by the library. Export these symbols or remove them from your publicly visible API.

Package	Leaked API symbols

License Headers ✔️

// Copyright (c) 2025, the Dart project authors. Please see the AUTHORS file
// for details. All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a
// BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.

Files
no missing headers

All source files should start with a license header.

Unrelated files missing license headers

Files
pkgs/bazel_worker/benchmark/benchmark.dart
pkgs/bazel_worker/example/client.dart
pkgs/bazel_worker/example/worker.dart
pkgs/benchmark_harness/integration_test/perf_benchmark_test.dart
pkgs/boolean_selector/example/example.dart
pkgs/clock/lib/clock.dart
pkgs/clock/lib/src/clock.dart
pkgs/clock/lib/src/default.dart
pkgs/clock/lib/src/stopwatch.dart
pkgs/clock/lib/src/utils.dart
pkgs/clock/test/clock_test.dart
pkgs/clock/test/default_test.dart
pkgs/clock/test/stopwatch_test.dart
pkgs/clock/test/utils.dart
pkgs/html/example/main.dart
pkgs/html/lib/dom.dart
pkgs/html/lib/dom_parsing.dart
pkgs/html/lib/html_escape.dart
pkgs/html/lib/parser.dart
pkgs/html/lib/src/constants.dart
pkgs/html/lib/src/encoding_parser.dart
pkgs/html/lib/src/html_input_stream.dart
pkgs/html/lib/src/list_proxy.dart
pkgs/html/lib/src/query_selector.dart
pkgs/html/lib/src/token.dart
pkgs/html/lib/src/tokenizer.dart
pkgs/html/lib/src/treebuilder.dart
pkgs/html/lib/src/utils.dart
pkgs/html/test/dom_test.dart
pkgs/html/test/parser_feature_test.dart
pkgs/html/test/parser_test.dart
pkgs/html/test/query_selector_test.dart
pkgs/html/test/selectors/level1_baseline_test.dart
pkgs/html/test/selectors/level1_lib.dart
pkgs/html/test/selectors/selectors.dart
pkgs/html/test/support.dart
pkgs/html/test/tokenizer_test.dart
pkgs/pubspec_parse/test/git_uri_test.dart
pkgs/stack_trace/example/example.dart
pkgs/watcher/test/custom_watcher_factory_test.dart
pkgs/yaml_edit/example/example.dart

[gmpassos]

@jakemac53 I think uses are unlike to break if we change the default behavior. We already have a default behavior for recursive with no override. Do you think it would make sense to assume followLinks: true too?

The current behavior is followLinks: true due to Directory.list default value for followLinks:
https://api.dart.dev/dart-io/Directory/list.html

I vote to keep the current behavior as the default since this is a core function and could be used by multiple third-party projects that might not catch any changes in this behavior in their tests, as it's not a common thing to test.

The main purpose is to add an extra option for those who really want to change the behavior.