E100 for dangling symlinks

[teners]

Check for existing issues

• Completed

Environment

Tested on:

• macOS 15.1, installed via Homebrew
• Debian 12, installed by direct download from GitHub releases
• vale 3.6.1–3.8.0

Describe the bug / provide steps to reproduce it

vale.ini:

StylesPath = .vale
MinAlertLevel = suggestion
IgnoredScopes = link, code
Packages = https://gitlab.example.net/documentation-linter/DevDocs.zip
[formats]
mdx = md
[*.md]
BasedOnStyles = DevDocs

1. Create a dangling symlink
   ln -s not-found.py symlink.py
2. Run vale
   vale . --output=JSON

Expected behaviour

The command is unaffected by the dangling symlink.

Actual behaviour

The command fails with

{
  "Code": "E100",
  "Text": "stat symlink.py: no such file or directory"
}

Notes

• vale sync is not affected
• I'm not sure whether this behaviour is completely incorrect, or if it makes sense for files that are actually being checked by vale — probably if I had a broken symlink to a Markdown file in my project, it would be okay if the command faild, but maybe the error message could be improved.