How does Git handle symbolic links

Question

If I have a file or directory that is a symbolic link and I commit it to a Git repository  what happens to it   I would assume that it leaves it as a symbolic link until the file is deleted and then if you pull the file back from an old version it just creates a normal file   What does it do when I delete the file it references  Does it just commit the dangling link

User · Accepted Answer

Git just stores the contents of the link (i.e. the path of the file system object that it links to) in a 'blob' just like it would for a normal file. It then stores the name, mode and type (including the fact that it is a symlink) in the tree object that represents its containing directory.

When you checkout a tree containing the link, it restores the object as a symlink regardless of whether the target file system object exists or not.

If you delete the file that the symlink references it doesn't affect the Git-controlled symlink in any way. You will have a dangling reference. It is up to the user to either remove or change the link to point to something valid if needed.

User · Answer

You can find out what Git does with a file by seeing what it does when you add it to the index  The index is like a pre-commit  With the index committed  you can use git checkout to bring everything that was in the index back into the working directory  So  what does Git do when you add a symbolic link to the index  To find out  first  make a symbolic link    ln -s  path referenced by symlink symlink  Git doesn t know about this file yet  git ls-files lets you inspect your index  -s prints stat-like output     git ls-files -s   symlink  nothing   Now  add the contents of the symbolic link to the Git object store by adding it to the index  When you add a file to the index  Git stores its contents in the Git object store    git add   symlink  So  what was added    git ls-files -s   symlink 120000 1596f9db1b9610f238b78dd168ae33faa2dec15c 0       symlink  The hash is a reference to the packed object that was created in the Git object store  You can examine this object if you look in  git objects 15 96f9db1b9610f238b78dd168ae33faa2dec15c in the root of your repository  This is the file that Git stores in the repository  that you can later check out  If you examine this file  you ll see it is very small  It does not store the contents of the linked file  To confirm this  print the contents of the packed repository object with git cat-file    git cat-file -p 1596f9db1b9610f238b78dd168ae33faa2dec15c  path referenced by symlink   Note 120000 is the mode listed in ls-files output  It would be something like 100644 for a regular file   But what does Git do with this object when you check it out from the repository and into your filesystem  It depends on the core symlinks config  From man git-config   core symlinks If false  symbolic links are checked out as small plain files that contain the link text   So  with a symbolic link in the repository  upon checkout you either get a text file with a reference to a full filesystem path  or a proper symbolic link  depending on the value of the core symlinks config  Either way  the data referenced by the symlink is not stored in the repository

User · Answer

Editor s  note  This post may contain outdated information  Please see comments and this question regarding changes in Git since 1 6 1    Symlinked directories   It s important to note what happens when there is a directory which is a soft link  Any Git pull with an update removes the link and makes it a normal directory  This is what I learnt hard way  Some insights here and here   Example  Before   ls -l  lrwxrwxrwx 1 admin adm   29 Sep 30 15 28 src somedir - gt   mnt somedir   git add commit push  It remains the same   After git pull AND some updates found   drwxrwsr-x 2 admin adm 4096 Oct  2 05 54 src somedir

[git] How does Git handle symbolic links?

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