Path resolution in the dataloader

[jerome-white]

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Question

How important is this line?

yolov5/utils/dataloaders.py

Line 246 in 5c91dae

p = str(Path(p).resolve())

Because my images are symlinks, it's making result writing difficult to manage. I've removed the line in my clone of the repository, and things seem to work. I'm hoping to get some assurance that there won't be unintended consequences.

Background

During detection, the file names I pass to the CLI are symlinks (that is, the paths inside of --source test.txt). This line is resolving those names to their real locations. I work with symlinks because my images live across my filesystem, at varying depths, and with no guarantees of unique basename's. Symlinks allow me expose that structure in a way that the codebase likes, and alleviates the need for making redundant copies of my dataset.

However, because they are symlinks this line is resolving them back to their actual names. This is an issue when I detect --save-txt, which writes results to TXT files corresponding image basename's.

Additional

Loosely related to #10254

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[glenn-jocher]

@jerome-white thanks for reaching out! The line you referred to resolves image paths to their real locations, and while your workaround might work, it could result in unintended consequences. You might encounter issues with output file writing and file path resolution if the line is removed. For custom data loaders, consider modifying it to suit your specific needs. I hope this helps resolve your issue. If you have further queries, feel free to ask.