Bug: "Ghost" workshops after copying / deleting directory

[hartmutobendorf]

This report covers a behavior considered to be a "bug" by the author because they describe behavior that is not expected, or difficult to accept: orphaned workshops are not mended, and they can only be removed by recreating the directory they were initially created in, without that directory serving any obvious function or purpose.

"ghosts" after deleting/moving a working directory

Steps to reproduce:

• create a new working directory
• create a workshop.yaml
• launch a workshop
• remove or rename/move the directory
• run workshop list --global

$ workshop list --global
PROJECT                                  WORKSHOP               STATUS   NOTES
~/workspace/ai/design-workshop           design                 Stopped  -
~/workspace/ai/test-delete-workshop      design                 Error    missing-project
WARNING: There is 1 new warning. See "workshop warnings".

$ workshop warnings
last-occurrence:  today at 12:05 CEST
warning: |
  cannot find project directory
  "/home/hartmut.obendorf@canonical.com/workspace/ai/test-delete-workshop" for workshop "design"

$ workshop remove -p test-delete-workshop
error: cannot create or load project at "/home/hartmut.obendorf@canonical.com/workspace/ai/test-delete-workshop": lstat /home/hartmut.obendorf@canonical.com/workspace/ai/test-delete-workshop: no such file or directory

$ mkdir test-delete-workshop
mkdir: created directory 'test-delete-workshop'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
$ workshop remove -p test-delete-workshop
"design" removed

Expected behaviour:

• ideally, there would be no orphaned workshop on move, at least after the newly named directory has been used
• it should be possible to remove a workshop without having to create a dummy, empty directory

[akcano]

For the record - mitigation is covered in https://ubuntu.com/workshop/docs/how-to/fix-workshops/purge/#remove-an-orphaned-workshop