If you render a partial, and that partial exists in a symlink, it will work and render correctly. However, if you edit the content of that partial and reload the page, it will not use the updated partial. I have a feeling it has to do with having some internal cache based on the files modified date, and its not picking up changes within a symlink.

I've tried adding the symlinked folder to reload paths (both relative, and the original folder) but looks like it's not reloading in those cases. Here's the steps to reproduce:

If you have a folder outside of your middleman project called "/users/me/code/my_folder" and symlink that into your Middleman "source/symlinked_in_folder" folder and try to use a partial within that folder you'll see this behavior.

= partial 'symlinked_in_folder/example'

Just ran into this, and am still tracking it down. If I do, I'll try adding a PR with it. :)