Accessing image in public still works without symlink (Explanation please)

@jlrdw yup, i want them to store their profile in to the storage/app/public/profiles/ directory, since this would be their profile picture. I just don't get why this 3 displays the image properly:

<img src="{{ auth()->user()->profile }}" />
<img src="{{ asset(auth()->user()->profile) }}" />
<img src="{{ asset('storage/' . auth()->user()->profile) }}" />

when it should not display anything since i haven't put an image in the public/ directory and i haven't create a symbolic link yet.

@Viadsss if they are under public/ you don't need a symbolic link. Anything under public is already a web folder.

A symbolic link is if they are out of a web accessible.

Hello @Snapey, Thank you for taking an interest on this post

<img src="{{ auth()->user()->profile }}" />
<img src="{{ asset(auth()->user()->profile) }}" />
<img src="{{ asset('storage/' . auth()->user()->profile) }}" />

corresponds to the following URL

http://homeroom.test/profiles/CKyXwwZFVGJ5ghhkfUBQfXDsMgw4eliC2iz8YFLN.jpg
http://homeroom.test/profiles/CKyXwwZFVGJ5ghhkfUBQfXDsMgw4eliC2iz8YFLN.jpg
http://homeroom.test/storage/profiles/CKyXwwZFVGJ5ghhkfUBQfXDsMgw4eliC2iz8YFLN.jpg

I know that i should use storage:link since i am storing the image in the public disk, i even look for the public/storage/ directory to make sure that i haven't symlink already. So this seems a bit odd

$ ls -la public
total 19
drwxr-xr-x 1 My Name 197609   0 May 20 18:44 ./
drwxr-xr-x 1 My Name 197609   0 May 19 21:14 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 My Name 197609 740 May 11 18:55 .htaccess
drwxr-xr-x 1 My Name 197609   0 May 20 17:29 build/
-rw-r--r-- 1 My Name 197609   0 May 11 18:55 favicon.ico
-rw-r--r-- 1 My Name 197609  17 May 20 18:08 hot
-rw-r--r-- 1 My Name 197609 543 May 11 18:55 index.php
-rw-r--r-- 1 My Name 197609  24 May 11 18:55 robots.txt
drwxr-xr-x 1 My Name 197609   0 May 20 18:44 vendor/

Here is my filesystems.php

<?php

return [

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Default Filesystem Disk
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | Here you may specify the default filesystem disk that should be used
    | by the framework. The "local" disk, as well as a variety of cloud
    | based disks are available to your application for file storage.
    |
    */

    'default' => env('FILESYSTEM_DISK', 'local'),

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Filesystem Disks
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | Below you may configure as many filesystem disks as necessary, and you
    | may even configure multiple disks for the same driver. Examples for
    | most supported storage drivers are configured here for reference.
    |
    | Supported drivers: "local", "ftp", "sftp", "s3"
    |
    */

    'disks' => [

        'local' => [
            'driver' => 'local',
            'root' => storage_path('app/private'),
            'serve' => true,
            'throw' => false,
            'report' => false,
        ],

        'public' => [
            'driver' => 'local',
            'root' => storage_path('app/public'),
            'url' => env('APP_URL').'/storage',
            'visibility' => 'public',
            'throw' => false,
            'report' => false,
        ],

        's3' => [
            'driver' => 's3',
            'key' => env('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'),
            'secret' => env('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'),
            'region' => env('AWS_DEFAULT_REGION'),
            'bucket' => env('AWS_BUCKET'),
            'url' => env('AWS_URL'),
            'endpoint' => env('AWS_ENDPOINT'),
            'use_path_style_endpoint' => env('AWS_USE_PATH_STYLE_ENDPOINT', false),
            'throw' => false,
            'report' => false,
        ],

    ],

    /*
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    | Symbolic Links
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | Here you may configure the symbolic links that will be created when the
    | `storage:link` Artisan command is executed. The array keys should be
    | the locations of the links and the values should be their targets.
    |
    */

    'links' => [
        public_path('storage') => storage_path('app/public'),
    ],

];

I am using Laravel Herd if it affects something

@Snapey I am using Windows 11 with Laravel Herd, the image is stored in the storage/app/public/profiles/hashname.jpg

@Snapey thank you for suggestion. as of now i tested this and even tried different browser and incognito mode but still the same, i can still see the image on those 3 without symlinking and tried another install for 3rd time without starter kit and breeze but still the same outcome.

@Snapey I think I’ve figured out why the images were displaying. I’ve updated my post with the details. Thank you for helping me eliminate potential causes along the way — really appreciate it!

@Viadsss Why do you 'use' herd then not use it for its web server and domain name functions?

@Snapey That's what I am trying to do. I just followed Jeffrey's 30 Days of Laravel and created some baby projects with this framework. I did not know that there were some gotchas that I needed to look out for, such as my concern about public storage.

For the composer run dev part, I have the same problem as this Stack Overflow Question, so I can't do composer run dev or php artisan serve directly. Not sure why this is the case for Laravel Herd on Windows.

@Viadsss I would not expect you to use either. Just add your site to Herd and visit http://sitename.test