threads / discuss / 53100

Git doesn't support symlinks

Subject: Git doesn't support symlinks

## tl;dr

4 messages between Mar 25, 2020 and Mar 26, 2020.

replies: 3people: 3as markdown or json

Daniel Malendez· Mar 25, 2020, 23:38 UTC · lore
Hi everyone,
I use `Ubuntu 18.04` with filesystem `ext` and `git 2.26.0`. I want to add a macOS Framework to my git repo, which fails with the following error message:
    $ git add -f /var/opt/project1/Foo.framework/Headers/Interior.h
    fatal: pathspec '/var/opt/project1/Foo.framework/Headers/Interior.h' is beyond a symbolic link
If I use `$ git add .` it works fine. Is this a bug? This is what `ls` returns
    Foo.framework $ ls -l
    lrwxr-xr-x  Headers -> Versions/Current/Headers
    lrwxr-xr-x  Resources -> Versions/Current/Resources
    drwxr-xr-x  Versions
This sounds like a bug, correct? If not, I am thankful for any advice! Thanks!

Best Regards, Daniel

Bryan Turner· Mar 26, 2020, 00:23 UTC · re: Daniel Malendez · lore

Re: Git doesn't support symlinks

On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 4:38 PM Daniel Malendez <dmalendez@googlemail.com> wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I use `Ubuntu 18.04` with filesystem `ext` and `git 2.26.0`. I want to add a macOS Framework to my git repo, which fails with the following error message:
>
>     $ git add -f /var/opt/project1/Foo.framework/Headers/Interior.h
>     fatal: pathspec '/var/opt/project1/Foo.framework/Headers/Interior.h' is beyond a symbolic link
>
> If I use `$ git add .` it works fine. Is this a bug? This is what `ls` returns
>
>     Foo.framework $ ls -l
>     lrwxr-xr-x  Headers -> Versions/Current/Headers
>     lrwxr-xr-x  Resources -> Versions/Current/Resources
>     drwxr-xr-x  Versions

This didn't add the same thing. What does a "git status" show at this point? I'd expect it would show "Versions/Current/Headers/interior.h" as added to the index, not "Headers/interior.h".

>
> This sounds like a bug, correct? If not, I am thankful for any advice! Thanks!
>

It doesn't necessarily seem like a bug, to me; more like a case where Git could potentially be "smarter" to try and determine that, while "Headers/interior.h" is beyond a symlink, the target of that symlink is still in the repository. (Versions/Current _is_ in the same repository, right?)

Show 5 quoted lines
>
>
>
> Best Regards,
> Daniel
Daniel Malendez· Mar 26, 2020, 00:37 UTC · lore

Re: Git doesn't support symlinks

Thanks for your feedback!
Show 5 quoted lines
> On Mar 25, 2020, at 8:23 PM, Bryan Turner <bturner@atlassian.com> wrote:
> 
> This didn't add the same thing. What does a "git status" show at this
> point? I'd expect it would show "Versions/Current/Headers/interior.h"
> as added to the index, not "Headers/interior.h".
$ git add .
$ git status
Changes to be committed:
  (use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
	new file:   Foo.framework/Headers
	new file:   Foo.framework/Versions/A/Headers/Interior.h
Show 5 quoted lines
> It doesn't necessarily seem like a bug, to me; more like a case where
> Git could potentially be "smarter" to try and determine that, while
> "Headers/interior.h" is beyond a symlink, the target of that symlink
> is still in the repository. (Versions/Current _is_ in the same
> repository, right?)
Agree, makes sense!

I think what happens here is that `git add .` adds the Foo.framework/Headers directory first, to circumvent this check failing here? https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/pathspec.c#L596 Whereas a single “git add path/to/file” would fail here

Danh Doan· Mar 26, 2020, 00:50 UTC · re: Daniel Malendez · lore

Re: Git doesn't support symlinks

On 2020-03-25 20:37:30-0400, Daniel Malendez <dmalendez@googlemail.com> wrote:
Show 26 quoted lines
> Thanks for your feedback!
> 
> > On Mar 25, 2020, at 8:23 PM, Bryan Turner <bturner@atlassian.com> wrote:
> > 
> > This didn't add the same thing. What does a "git status" show at this
> > point? I'd expect it would show "Versions/Current/Headers/interior.h"
> > as added to the index, not "Headers/interior.h".
> 
> $ git add .
> $ git status
> Changes to be committed:
>   (use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
> 	new file:   Foo.framework/Headers
> 	new file:   Foo.framework/Versions/A/Headers/Interior.h
> 
> > It doesn't necessarily seem like a bug, to me; more like a case where
> > Git could potentially be "smarter" to try and determine that, while
> > "Headers/interior.h" is beyond a symlink, the target of that symlink
> > is still in the repository. (Versions/Current _is_ in the same
> > repository, right?)
> 
> Agree, makes sense!
> 
> I think what happens here is that `git add .` adds the
> Foo.framework/Headers directory first, to circumvent this check
> failing here?

"Foo.framework/Headers" is a symlinks, and git simply adds that, without caring where it's linked to.

To git, there's nothing inside "Foo.framework/Headers", it's a blob, which happends to be type: symlink.

IOW, you can:
	$ git add Foo.framework/Headers # without add the target
	$ ln -s /usr/bin bin
	$ git add bin # git won't write to index anything from /usr/bin
> https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/pathspec.c#L596
> Whereas a single “git add path/to/file” would fail here
-- 
Danh

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