# error with symlinks on OSX

3 messages from 2007-03-15 to 2007-03-15. Participants: Seth Falcon, Shawn O. Pearce.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/7260

## Seth Falcon, 2007-03-15 17:12

Subject: error with symlinks on OSX
Message-ID: <m2r6rqbfcy.fsf@ziti.local>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/m2r6rqbfcy.fsf%40ziti.local

```
Hi,

I've been tracking an svn repository using git-svn and today when I
did:

   git svn rebase

   (which is equivalent to git svn fetch && git rebase
   remotes/git-svn)

I got errors like this:

error: git-checkout-index: unable to create symlink Category/Makefile (Invalid argument)

Now while my file system isn't smart enough to tell the difference
between t and T, it does support symlinks AFAIK.

git version 1.5.0.2.293.g102a0

I can provide more info if it would help.

+ seth

```

## Shawn O. Pearce, 2007-03-15 19:44

Subject: Re: error with symlinks on OSX
Message-ID: <20070315194410.GC29547@spearce.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20070315194410.GC29547%40spearce.org
In-Reply-To: <m2r6rqbfcy.fsf@ziti.local>

```
Seth Falcon <sethfalcon@gmail.com> wrote:
> error: git-checkout-index: unable to create symlink Category/Makefile (Invalid argument)
> 
> Now while my file system isn't smart enough to tell the difference
> between t and T, it does support symlinks AFAIK.

Yes, it does support symlinks.  Is it possible that the name Category
already existed, but as a file?  Hmm.
 
-- 
Shawn.

```

## Seth Falcon, 2007-03-15 22:19

Subject: Re: error with symlinks on OSX
Message-ID: <m2wt1i6tfk.fsf@ziti.local>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/m2wt1i6tfk.fsf%40ziti.local
In-Reply-To: <20070315194410.GC29547@spearce.org>

```
"Shawn O. Pearce" <spearce@spearce.org> writes:

> Seth Falcon <sethfalcon@gmail.com> wrote:
>> error: git-checkout-index: unable to create symlink Category/Makefile (Invalid argument)
>> 
>> Now while my file system isn't smart enough to tell the difference
>> between t and T, it does support symlinks AFAIK.
>
> Yes, it does support symlinks.  Is it possible that the name Category
> already existed, but as a file?  Hmm.

I think in the revision before the update, there was a file
Category/Makefile and that it was replaced by a symlink.

So Category is/was a dir.  Category/Makefile was a file and became a
symlink.  Note that I am using git-svn to track an svn repository and
so the problem could be there.

However, I'm not sure where to look or what experiment to try next.

If I checkout an old revision prior to the file becoming a symlink and
then checkout master, I get:

git checkout -b foobar 74227bbd35a77b8
Switched to a new branch "foobar"
git checkout master
D       Category/Makefile
[...snip...]
D       vsn/Makefile
Switched to branch "master"

git reset --hard HEAD
error: git-checkout-index: unable to create symlink Category/Makefile (Invalid argument)
[...snip...]
error: git-checkout-index: unable to create symlink vsn/Makefile (Invalid argument)
HEAD is now at 30bd65d... the commit msg here


-- 
Seth

```