# Git doesn't like symlinks?

2 messages from 2007-07-20 to 2007-08-08. Participants: Rogan Dawes.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/9115

## Rogan Dawes, 2007-07-20 11:19

Subject: Git doesn't like symlinks?
Message-ID: <46A09A2B.3030205@dawes.za.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/46A09A2B.3030205%40dawes.za.net

```
Hi folks,

I have been tasked with doing some development against an external SVN 
repo, and keeping it largely in sync with an internal directory.

Seeing as how this is a git list, I obviously decided to do this using 
git :-)

So, I have a local git repo with my local changes from the SVN repo, and 
I can push them to the SVN repo without too many problems. The problem 
arises when I try to sync with the local directory.

Since the local directory's structure doesn't match the repo exactly, I 
figured I could work around that by using a symlink to get to the right 
place.

ie. the local dir is
C:\local\blah\release\5.2\<contents>

and the structure of the SVN (and hence git) repo is:
/top/main/<contents>

where <contents> is/should be identical between the two places.

Obviously, git won't work correctly in the local dir, so I tried the 
following (on Cygwin)

$ cd /tmp
$ ~/git/contrib/workdir/git-new-workdir /my/git/repo/ repo-local
$ cd repo-local/top
$ rm -rf main/
$ ln -s /c/local/blah/release/5.2/ main/
$ git status

This worked, and showed me that there were a few files out of sync.

I decided to copy over one of the files from git to the local dir:

$ git checkout top/main/some/file

And git deleted my "main" symlink, and replaced it with a real dir, 
containing "some/file".

Everything _else_ was now "missing".

Any ideas on how I can get this to work? I know this is not strictly 
what git was designed for, but it could do a really good job if it would 
only leave my symlink alone.

Rogan

```

## Rogan Dawes, 2007-08-08 08:29

Subject: Re: Git doesn't like symlinks?
Message-ID: <46B97F05.6060503@dawes.za.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/46B97F05.6060503%40dawes.za.net
In-Reply-To: <46A09A2B.3030205@dawes.za.net>

```
Rogan Dawes wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I have been tasked with doing some development against an external SVN 
> repo, and keeping it largely in sync with an internal directory.
> 
> Seeing as how this is a git list, I obviously decided to do this using 
> git :-)
> 
> So, I have a local git repo with my local changes from the SVN repo, and 
> I can push them to the SVN repo without too many problems. The problem 
> arises when I try to sync with the local directory.
> 
> Since the local directory's structure doesn't match the repo exactly, I 
> figured I could work around that by using a symlink to get to the right 
> place.
> 
> ie. the local dir is
> C:\local\blah\release\5.2\<contents>
> 
> and the structure of the SVN (and hence git) repo is:
> /top/main/<contents>
> 
> where <contents> is/should be identical between the two places.
> 
> Obviously, git won't work correctly in the local dir, so I tried the 
> following (on Cygwin)
> 
> $ cd /tmp
> $ ~/git/contrib/workdir/git-new-workdir /my/git/repo/ repo-local
> $ cd repo-local/top
> $ rm -rf main/
> $ ln -s /c/local/blah/release/5.2/ main/
> $ git status
> 
> This worked, and showed me that there were a few files out of sync.
> 
> I decided to copy over one of the files from git to the local dir:
> 
> $ git checkout top/main/some/file
> 
> And git deleted my "main" symlink, and replaced it with a real dir, 
> containing "some/file".
> 
> Everything _else_ was now "missing".
> 
> Any ideas on how I can get this to work? I know this is not strictly 
> what git was designed for, but it could do a really good job if it would 
> only leave my symlink alone.
> 
> Rogan

So, for anyone else caught in this awkward position, the answer is not 
to use a symlink, but to use cygwin's mount command instead.

$ cd /tmp
$ ~/git/contrib/workdir/git-new-workdir /my/git/repo/ repo-local
$ cd repo-local/top
$ rm -rf main/
$ mkdir main/
$ mount 'C:\local\blah\release\5.2\' /tmp/repo-local/top/main/

And everything works as expected.

Regards,

Rogan

```