[PATCH 00/18] Support symbolic links on Windows

[PATCH 00/18] Support symbolic links on Windows

[Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget]

This finally upstreams Git for Windows' support for Windows' branch of
symbolic links, which has been maturing since 2015. It is based off of
js/prep-symlink-windows.

Bill Zissimopoulos (1):
  mingw: compute the correct size for symlinks in `mingw_lstat()`

Johannes Schindelin (3):
  mingw: try to create symlinks without elevated permissions
  mingw: emulate `stat()` a little more faithfully
  mingw: special-case index entries for symlinks with buggy size

Karsten Blees (14):
  mingw: don't call `GetFileAttributes()` twice in `mingw_lstat()`
  mingw: implement `stat()` with symlink support
  mingw: drop the separate `do_lstat()` function
  mingw: let `mingw_lstat()` error early upon problems with reparse
    points
  mingw: teach dirent about symlinks
  mingw: factor out the retry logic
  mingw: change default of `core.symlinks` to false
  mingw: add symlink-specific error codes
  mingw: handle symlinks to directories in `mingw_unlink()`
  mingw: support renaming symlinks
  mingw: allow `mingw_chdir()` to change to symlink-resolved directories
  mingw: implement `readlink()`
  mingw: implement basic `symlink()` functionality (file symlinks only)
  mingw: add support for symlinks to directories

 compat/mingw-posix.h  |   6 +-
 compat/mingw.c        | 635 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
 compat/win32.h        |   6 +-
 compat/win32/dirent.c |   5 +-
 read-cache.c          |  11 +
 5 files changed, 507 insertions(+), 156 deletions(-)


base-commit: 6f6fe02f5fe587ec9788f8a5a34281949d7b2ca1
Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2018%2Fdscho%2Fsymlinks-next-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2018/dscho/symlinks-next-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2018
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 01/18] mingw: don't call `GetFileAttributes()` twice in `mingw_lstat()`

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

The Win32 API function `GetFileAttributes()` cannot handle paths with
trailing dir separators. The current `mingw_stat()`/`mingw_lstat()`
implementation calls `GetFileAttributes()` twice if the path has
trailing slashes (first with the original path that was passed as
function parameter, and and a second time with a path copy with trailing
'/' removed).

With the conversion to wide Unicode, we get the length of the path for
free, and also have a (wide char) buffer that can be modified. This
makes it easy to avoid that extraneous Win32 API call.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 48 ++++++++++++------------------------------------
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 36 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index cf4f3c92e7..f5a0fe3325 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -928,9 +928,18 @@ static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
 	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH];
-	if (xutftowcs_path(wfilename, file_name) < 0)
+	int wlen = xutftowcs_path(wfilename, file_name);
+	if (wlen < 0)
 		return -1;
 
+	/* strip trailing '/', or GetFileAttributes will fail */
+	while (wlen && is_dir_sep(wfilename[wlen - 1]))
+		wfilename[--wlen] = 0;
+	if (!wlen) {
+		errno = ENOENT;
+		return -1;
+	}
+
 	if (GetFileAttributesExW(wfilename, GetFileExInfoStandard, &fdata)) {
 		buf->st_ino = 0;
 		buf->st_gid = 0;
@@ -990,39 +999,6 @@ static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 	return -1;
 }
 
-/* We provide our own lstat/fstat functions, since the provided
- * lstat/fstat functions are so slow. These stat functions are
- * tailored for Git's usage (read: fast), and are not meant to be
- * complete. Note that Git stat()s are redirected to mingw_lstat()
- * too, since Windows doesn't really handle symlinks that well.
- */
-static int do_stat_internal(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
-{
-	size_t namelen;
-	char alt_name[PATH_MAX];
-
-	if (!do_lstat(follow, file_name, buf))
-		return 0;
-
-	/* if file_name ended in a '/', Windows returned ENOENT;
-	 * try again without trailing slashes
-	 */
-	if (errno != ENOENT)
-		return -1;
-
-	namelen = strlen(file_name);
-	if (namelen && file_name[namelen-1] != '/')
-		return -1;
-	while (namelen && file_name[namelen-1] == '/')
-		--namelen;
-	if (!namelen || namelen >= PATH_MAX)
-		return -1;
-
-	memcpy(alt_name, file_name, namelen);
-	alt_name[namelen] = 0;
-	return do_lstat(follow, alt_name, buf);
-}
-
 static int get_file_info_by_handle(HANDLE hnd, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION fdata;
@@ -1048,11 +1024,11 @@ static int get_file_info_by_handle(HANDLE hnd, struct stat *buf)
 
 int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
-	return do_stat_internal(0, file_name, buf);
+	return do_lstat(0, file_name, buf);
 }
 int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
-	return do_stat_internal(1, file_name, buf);
+	return do_lstat(1, file_name, buf);
 }
 
 int mingw_fstat(int fd, struct stat *buf)
-- 
gitgitgadget

Re: [PATCH 01/18] mingw: don't call `GetFileAttributes()` twice in `mingw_lstat()`

[Johannes Sixt]

Am 17.12.25 um 15:08 schrieb Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget:
> From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> 
> The Win32 API function `GetFileAttributes()` cannot handle paths with
> trailing dir separators. The current `mingw_stat()`/`mingw_lstat()`
> implementation calls `GetFileAttributes()` twice if the path has
> trailing slashes (first with the original path that was passed as
> function parameter, and and a second time with a path copy with trailing
> '/' removed).
A comment above do_lstat() mentions this procedure. This patch doesn't
change the comment, but it should.

-- Hannes

[PATCH 02/18] mingw: implement `stat()` with symlink support

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

With respect to symlinks, the current `mingw_stat()` implementation is
almost identical to `mingw_lstat()`: except for the file type (`st_mode
& S_IFMT`), it returns information about the link rather than the target.

Implement `mingw_stat()` by opening the file handle requesting minimal
permissions, and then calling `GetFileInformationByHandle()` on it. This
way, all links are resolved by the Windows file system layer.

If symlinks are disabled, use `mingw_lstat()` as before, but fail with
`ELOOP` if a symlink would have to be resolved.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 19 ++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index f5a0fe3325..59afd69686 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -1026,9 +1026,26 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	return do_lstat(0, file_name, buf);
 }
+
 int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
-	return do_lstat(1, file_name, buf);
+	wchar_t wfile_name[MAX_PATH];
+	HANDLE hnd;
+	int result;
+
+	/* open the file and let Windows resolve the links */
+	if (xutftowcs_path(wfile_name, file_name) < 0)
+		return -1;
+	hnd = CreateFileW(wfile_name, 0,
+			FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
+			OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
+	if (hnd == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		return -1;
+	}
+	result = get_file_info_by_handle(hnd, buf);
+	CloseHandle(hnd);
+	return result;
 }
 
 int mingw_fstat(int fd, struct stat *buf)
-- 
gitgitgadget

Re: [PATCH 02/18] mingw: implement `stat()` with symlink support

[Johannes Sixt]

Am 17.12.25 um 15:08 schrieb Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget:
> From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> 
> With respect to symlinks, the current `mingw_stat()` implementation is
> almost identical to `mingw_lstat()`: except for the file type (`st_mode
> & S_IFMT`), it returns information about the link rather than the target.
> 
> Implement `mingw_stat()` by opening the file handle requesting minimal
> permissions, and then calling `GetFileInformationByHandle()` on it. This
> way, all links are resolved by the Windows file system layer.
> 
> If symlinks are disabled, use `mingw_lstat()` as before, but fail with
> `ELOOP` if a symlink would have to be resolved.

This last paragraph is disconnected from the patch text. I can't find a
use of ELOOP anywhere in the code that has something to do with the goal
of this patch. Is this a remnant from early times where symbolic links
were optional?

The patch text looks good.

> 
> Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
> ---
>  compat/mingw.c | 19 ++++++++++++++++++-
>  1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
> index f5a0fe3325..59afd69686 100644
> --- a/compat/mingw.c
> +++ b/compat/mingw.c
> @@ -1026,9 +1026,26 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
>  {
>  	return do_lstat(0, file_name, buf);
>  }
> +
>  int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
>  {
> -	return do_lstat(1, file_name, buf);
> +	wchar_t wfile_name[MAX_PATH];
> +	HANDLE hnd;
> +	int result;
> +
> +	/* open the file and let Windows resolve the links */
> +	if (xutftowcs_path(wfile_name, file_name) < 0)
> +		return -1;
> +	hnd = CreateFileW(wfile_name, 0,
> +			FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
> +			OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
> +	if (hnd == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
> +		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
> +		return -1;
> +	}
> +	result = get_file_info_by_handle(hnd, buf);
> +	CloseHandle(hnd);
> +	return result;
>  }
>  
>  int mingw_fstat(int fd, struct stat *buf)

-- Hannes

Re: [PATCH 02/18] mingw: implement `stat()` with symlink support

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi Hannes,

On Thu, 18 Dec 2025, Johannes Sixt wrote:

> Am 17.12.25 um 15:08 schrieb Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget:
> > From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> > 
> > With respect to symlinks, the current `mingw_stat()` implementation is
> > almost identical to `mingw_lstat()`: except for the file type (`st_mode
> > & S_IFMT`), it returns information about the link rather than the target.
> > 
> > Implement `mingw_stat()` by opening the file handle requesting minimal
> > permissions, and then calling `GetFileInformationByHandle()` on it. This
> > way, all links are resolved by the Windows file system layer.
> > 
> > If symlinks are disabled, use `mingw_lstat()` as before, but fail with
> > `ELOOP` if a symlink would have to be resolved.
> 
> This last paragraph is disconnected from the patch text. I can't find a
> use of ELOOP anywhere in the code that has something to do with the goal
> of this patch. Is this a remnant from early times where symbolic links
> were optional?

You're right. Sharp eyes, by the way, I cannot count how often I glanced
over this paragraph while pre-reviewing.

As to the reason why this paragraph is there: This comes from the initial
version of this patch:
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/commit/b908441ea594f022e862c04cefe8ac73bb8c0ab0

I can only try to reconstruct why I skipped the ELOOP logic in the rebased
version at
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/commit/0181eb0c78d04f5fb065cbe2f3346077b0f9930e
(my guess is that I realized that returning ELOOP when symlink support was
disabled via `core.symlinks = false` was undesirable: In particular with
Windows 7 semantics, where symlinks could be read and used, but required
administrator permissions to create, that flag was meant to turn off
symlink _creation_, but reading existing symlinks should work
nevertheless).

I'll simply remove this paragraph from the commit message.

Ciao,
Johannes

[PATCH 03/18] mingw: drop the separate `do_lstat()` function

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

With the new `mingw_stat()` implementation, `do_lstat()` is only called
from `mingw_lstat()` (with the function parameter `follow == 0`). Remove
the extra function and the old `mingw_stat()`-specific (`follow == 1`)
logic.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 22 ++--------------------
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 59afd69686..ec6c2801d3 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -917,14 +917,7 @@ static int has_valid_directory_prefix(wchar_t *wfilename)
 	return 1;
 }
 
-/* We keep the do_lstat code in a separate function to avoid recursion.
- * When a path ends with a slash, the stat will fail with ENOENT. In
- * this case, we strip the trailing slashes and stat again.
- *
- * If follow is true then act like stat() and report on the link
- * target. Otherwise report on the link itself.
- */
-static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
+int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
 	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH];
@@ -958,13 +951,7 @@ static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 			if (handle != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
 				if ((findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) &&
 						(findbuf.dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)) {
-					if (follow) {
-						char buffer[MAXIMUM_REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER_SIZE];
-						buf->st_size = readlink(file_name, buffer, MAXIMUM_REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER_SIZE);
-					} else {
-						buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK;
-					}
-					buf->st_mode |= S_IREAD;
+					buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK | S_IREAD;
 					if (!(findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
 						buf->st_mode |= S_IWRITE;
 				}
@@ -1022,11 +1009,6 @@ static int get_file_info_by_handle(HANDLE hnd, struct stat *buf)
 	return 0;
 }
 
-int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
-{
-	return do_lstat(0, file_name, buf);
-}
-
 int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	wchar_t wfile_name[MAX_PATH];
-- 
gitgitgadget

Re: [PATCH 03/18] mingw: drop the separate `do_lstat()` function

[Johannes Sixt]

Am 17.12.25 um 15:08 schrieb Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget:
> From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> 
> With the new `mingw_stat()` implementation, `do_lstat()` is only called
> from `mingw_lstat()` (with the function parameter `follow == 0`). Remove
> the extra function and the old `mingw_stat()`-specific (`follow == 1`)
> logic.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
> ---
>  compat/mingw.c | 22 ++--------------------
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
> index 59afd69686..ec6c2801d3 100644
> --- a/compat/mingw.c
> +++ b/compat/mingw.c
> @@ -917,14 +917,7 @@ static int has_valid_directory_prefix(wchar_t *wfilename)
>  	return 1;
>  }
>  
> -/* We keep the do_lstat code in a separate function to avoid recursion.
> - * When a path ends with a slash, the stat will fail with ENOENT. In
> - * this case, we strip the trailing slashes and stat again.
> - *
> - * If follow is true then act like stat() and report on the link
> - * target. Otherwise report on the link itself.
> - */
> -static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
> +int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)

Oh, here goes the entire function including the comment. Fine, then.
Disregard my comment on 01/18.

>  {
>  	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
>  	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH];
> @@ -958,13 +951,7 @@ static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
>  			if (handle != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
>  				if ((findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) &&
>  						(findbuf.dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)) {
> -					if (follow) {
> -						char buffer[MAXIMUM_REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER_SIZE];
> -						buf->st_size = readlink(file_name, buffer, MAXIMUM_REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER_SIZE);
> -					} else {
> -						buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK;
> -					}
> -					buf->st_mode |= S_IREAD;
> +					buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK | S_IREAD;
>  					if (!(findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
>  						buf->st_mode |= S_IWRITE;
>  				}
> @@ -1022,11 +1009,6 @@ static int get_file_info_by_handle(HANDLE hnd, struct stat *buf)
>  	return 0;
>  }
>  
> -int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
> -{
> -	return do_lstat(0, file_name, buf);
> -}
> -
>  int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
>  {
>  	wchar_t wfile_name[MAX_PATH];

An obviously correct rewrite.

-- Hannes

[PATCH 04/18] mingw: let `mingw_lstat()` error early upon problems with reparse points

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

When obtaining lstat information for reparse points, we need to call
`FindFirstFile()` in addition to `GetFileInformationEx()` to obtain
the type of the reparse point (symlink, mount point etc.). However,
currently there is no error handling whatsoever if `FindFirstFile()`
fails.

Call `FindFirstFile()` before modifying the `stat *buf` output parameter
and error out if the call fails.

Note: The `FindFirstFile()` return value includes all the data
that we get from `GetFileAttributesEx()`, so we could replace
`GetFileAttributesEx()` with `FindFirstFile()`. We don't do that because
`GetFileAttributesEx()` is about twice as fast for single files. I.e.
we only pay the extra cost of calling `FindFirstFile()` in the rare case
that we encounter a reparse point.

Please also note that the indentation the remaining reparse point
code changed, and hence the best way to look at this diff is with
`--color-moved -w`. That code was _not_ moved because a subsequent
commit will move it to an altogether different function, anyway.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 24 ++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index ec6c2801d3..23a926c7d1 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -920,6 +920,7 @@ static int has_valid_directory_prefix(wchar_t *wfilename)
 int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
+	WIN32_FIND_DATAW findbuf = { 0 };
 	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH];
 	int wlen = xutftowcs_path(wfilename, file_name);
 	if (wlen < 0)
@@ -934,6 +935,13 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 	}
 
 	if (GetFileAttributesExW(wfilename, GetFileExInfoStandard, &fdata)) {
+		/* for reparse points, use FindFirstFile to get the reparse tag */
+		if (fdata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) {
+			HANDLE handle = FindFirstFileW(wfilename, &findbuf);
+			if (handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
+				goto error;
+			FindClose(handle);
+		}
 		buf->st_ino = 0;
 		buf->st_gid = 0;
 		buf->st_uid = 0;
@@ -946,20 +954,16 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftLastWriteTime), &(buf->st_mtim));
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftCreationTime), &(buf->st_ctim));
 		if (fdata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) {
-			WIN32_FIND_DATAW findbuf;
-			HANDLE handle = FindFirstFileW(wfilename, &findbuf);
-			if (handle != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
-				if ((findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) &&
-						(findbuf.dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)) {
-					buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK | S_IREAD;
-					if (!(findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
-						buf->st_mode |= S_IWRITE;
-				}
-				FindClose(handle);
+			if ((findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) &&
+					(findbuf.dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)) {
+				buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK | S_IREAD;
+				if (!(findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
+					buf->st_mode |= S_IWRITE;
 			}
 		}
 		return 0;
 	}
+error:
 	switch (GetLastError()) {
 	case ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED:
 	case ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION:
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 05/18] mingw: teach dirent about symlinks

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

Move the `S_IFLNK` detection to `file_attr_to_st_mode()`.

Implement `DT_LNK` detection in dirent.c's `readdir()` function.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c        | 13 +++----------
 compat/win32.h        |  6 ++++--
 compat/win32/dirent.c |  5 ++++-
 3 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 23a926c7d1..a3a48db581 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -946,21 +946,14 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 		buf->st_gid = 0;
 		buf->st_uid = 0;
 		buf->st_nlink = 1;
-		buf->st_mode = file_attr_to_st_mode(fdata.dwFileAttributes);
+		buf->st_mode = file_attr_to_st_mode(fdata.dwFileAttributes,
+				findbuf.dwReserved0);
 		buf->st_size = fdata.nFileSizeLow |
 			(((off_t)fdata.nFileSizeHigh)<<32);
 		buf->st_dev = buf->st_rdev = 0; /* not used by Git */
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftLastAccessTime), &(buf->st_atim));
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftLastWriteTime), &(buf->st_mtim));
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftCreationTime), &(buf->st_ctim));
-		if (fdata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) {
-			if ((findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) &&
-					(findbuf.dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)) {
-				buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK | S_IREAD;
-				if (!(findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
-					buf->st_mode |= S_IWRITE;
-			}
-		}
 		return 0;
 	}
 error:
@@ -1003,7 +996,7 @@ static int get_file_info_by_handle(HANDLE hnd, struct stat *buf)
 	buf->st_gid = 0;
 	buf->st_uid = 0;
 	buf->st_nlink = 1;
-	buf->st_mode = file_attr_to_st_mode(fdata.dwFileAttributes);
+	buf->st_mode = file_attr_to_st_mode(fdata.dwFileAttributes, 0);
 	buf->st_size = fdata.nFileSizeLow |
 		(((off_t)fdata.nFileSizeHigh)<<32);
 	buf->st_dev = buf->st_rdev = 0; /* not used by Git */
diff --git a/compat/win32.h b/compat/win32.h
index a97e880757..671bcc81f9 100644
--- a/compat/win32.h
+++ b/compat/win32.h
@@ -6,10 +6,12 @@
 #include <windows.h>
 #endif
 
-static inline int file_attr_to_st_mode (DWORD attr)
+static inline int file_attr_to_st_mode (DWORD attr, DWORD tag)
 {
 	int fMode = S_IREAD;
-	if (attr & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
+	if ((attr & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) && tag == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)
+		fMode |= S_IFLNK;
+	else if (attr & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
 		fMode |= S_IFDIR;
 	else
 		fMode |= S_IFREG;
diff --git a/compat/win32/dirent.c b/compat/win32/dirent.c
index 52420ec7d4..24ee9b814d 100644
--- a/compat/win32/dirent.c
+++ b/compat/win32/dirent.c
@@ -12,7 +12,10 @@ static inline void finddata2dirent(struct dirent *ent, WIN32_FIND_DATAW *fdata)
 	xwcstoutf(ent->d_name, fdata->cFileName, sizeof(ent->d_name));
 
 	/* Set file type, based on WIN32_FIND_DATA */
-	if (fdata->dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
+	if ((fdata->dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT)
+			&& fdata->dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)
+		ent->d_type = DT_LNK;
+	else if (fdata->dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
 		ent->d_type = DT_DIR;
 	else
 		ent->d_type = DT_REG;
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 06/18] mingw: compute the correct size for symlinks in `mingw_lstat()`

[Bill Zissimopoulos via GitGitGadget]

From: Bill Zissimopoulos <billziss@navimatics.com>

POSIX specifies that upon successful return from `lstat()`: "the
value of the st_size member shall be set to the length of the pathname
contained in the symbolic link not including any terminating null byte".

Git typically doesn't trust the `stat.st_size` member of symlinks (e.g.
see `strbuf_readlink()`). Therefore, it is tempting to save on the extra
overhead of opening and reading the reparse point merely to calculate
the exact size of the link target.

This is, in fact, what Git for Windows did, from May 2015 to May 2020.
At least almost: some functions take shortcuts if `st_size` is 0 (e.g.
`diff_populate_filespec()`), hence Git for Windows hard-coded the length
of all symlinks to MAX_PATH.

This did cause problems, though, specifically in Git repositories
that were also accessed by Git for Cygwin or Git for WSL. For example,
doing `git reset --hard` using Git for Windows would update the size of
symlinks in the index to be MAX_PATH; at a later time Git for Cygwin
or Git for WSL would find that symlinks have changed size during `git
status` and update the index. And then Git for Windows would think that
the index needs to be updated. Even if the symlinks did not, in fact,
change. To avoid that, the correct size must be determined.

Signed-off-by: Bill Zissimopoulos <billziss@navimatics.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 114 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 104 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index a3a48db581..c7571951dc 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 #define SECURITY_WIN32
 #include <sspi.h>
 #include <wchar.h>
+#include <winioctl.h>
 #include <winternl.h>
 
 #define STATUS_DELETE_PENDING ((NTSTATUS) 0xC0000056)
@@ -917,10 +918,102 @@ static int has_valid_directory_prefix(wchar_t *wfilename)
 	return 1;
 }
 
+#ifndef _WINNT_H
+/*
+ * The REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER structure is defined in the Windows DDK (in
+ * ntifs.h) and in MSYS1's winnt.h (which defines _WINNT_H). So define
+ * it ourselves if we are on MSYS2 (whose winnt.h defines _WINNT_).
+ */
+typedef struct _REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER {
+	DWORD  ReparseTag;
+	WORD   ReparseDataLength;
+	WORD   Reserved;
+#ifndef _MSC_VER
+	_ANONYMOUS_UNION
+#endif
+	union {
+		struct {
+			WORD   SubstituteNameOffset;
+			WORD   SubstituteNameLength;
+			WORD   PrintNameOffset;
+			WORD   PrintNameLength;
+			ULONG  Flags;
+			WCHAR PathBuffer[1];
+		} SymbolicLinkReparseBuffer;
+		struct {
+			WORD   SubstituteNameOffset;
+			WORD   SubstituteNameLength;
+			WORD   PrintNameOffset;
+			WORD   PrintNameLength;
+			WCHAR PathBuffer[1];
+		} MountPointReparseBuffer;
+		struct {
+			BYTE   DataBuffer[1];
+		} GenericReparseBuffer;
+	} DUMMYUNIONNAME;
+} REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER, *PREPARSE_DATA_BUFFER;
+#endif
+
+static int read_reparse_point(const WCHAR *wpath, BOOL fail_on_unknown_tag,
+			      char *tmpbuf, int *plen, DWORD *ptag)
+{
+	HANDLE handle;
+	WCHAR *wbuf;
+	REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER *b = alloca(MAXIMUM_REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER_SIZE);
+	DWORD dummy;
+
+	/* read reparse point data */
+	handle = CreateFileW(wpath, 0,
+			FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
+			OPEN_EXISTING,
+			FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS | FILE_FLAG_OPEN_REPARSE_POINT, NULL);
+	if (handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		return -1;
+	}
+	if (!DeviceIoControl(handle, FSCTL_GET_REPARSE_POINT, NULL, 0, b,
+			MAXIMUM_REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER_SIZE, &dummy, NULL)) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		CloseHandle(handle);
+		return -1;
+	}
+	CloseHandle(handle);
+
+	/* get target path for symlinks or mount points (aka 'junctions') */
+	switch ((*ptag = b->ReparseTag)) {
+	case IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK:
+		wbuf = (WCHAR*) (((char*) b->SymbolicLinkReparseBuffer.PathBuffer)
+				+ b->SymbolicLinkReparseBuffer.SubstituteNameOffset);
+		*(WCHAR*) (((char*) wbuf)
+				+ b->SymbolicLinkReparseBuffer.SubstituteNameLength) = 0;
+		break;
+	case IO_REPARSE_TAG_MOUNT_POINT:
+		wbuf = (WCHAR*) (((char*) b->MountPointReparseBuffer.PathBuffer)
+				+ b->MountPointReparseBuffer.SubstituteNameOffset);
+		*(WCHAR*) (((char*) wbuf)
+				+ b->MountPointReparseBuffer.SubstituteNameLength) = 0;
+		break;
+	default:
+		if (fail_on_unknown_tag) {
+			errno = EINVAL;
+			return -1;
+		} else {
+			*plen = MAX_PATH;
+			return 0;
+		}
+	}
+
+	if ((*plen =
+	     xwcstoutf(tmpbuf, normalize_ntpath(wbuf), MAX_PATH)) <  0)
+		return -1;
+	return 0;
+}
+
 int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
-	WIN32_FIND_DATAW findbuf = { 0 };
+	DWORD reparse_tag = 0;
+	int link_len = 0;
 	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH];
 	int wlen = xutftowcs_path(wfilename, file_name);
 	if (wlen < 0)
@@ -935,28 +1028,29 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 	}
 
 	if (GetFileAttributesExW(wfilename, GetFileExInfoStandard, &fdata)) {
-		/* for reparse points, use FindFirstFile to get the reparse tag */
+		/* for reparse points, get the link tag and length */
 		if (fdata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) {
-			HANDLE handle = FindFirstFileW(wfilename, &findbuf);
-			if (handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
-				goto error;
-			FindClose(handle);
+			char tmpbuf[MAX_PATH];
+
+			if (read_reparse_point(wfilename, FALSE, tmpbuf,
+					       &link_len, &reparse_tag) < 0)
+				return -1;
 		}
 		buf->st_ino = 0;
 		buf->st_gid = 0;
 		buf->st_uid = 0;
 		buf->st_nlink = 1;
 		buf->st_mode = file_attr_to_st_mode(fdata.dwFileAttributes,
-				findbuf.dwReserved0);
-		buf->st_size = fdata.nFileSizeLow |
-			(((off_t)fdata.nFileSizeHigh)<<32);
+				reparse_tag);
+		buf->st_size = S_ISLNK(buf->st_mode) ? link_len :
+			fdata.nFileSizeLow | (((off_t) fdata.nFileSizeHigh) << 32);
 		buf->st_dev = buf->st_rdev = 0; /* not used by Git */
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftLastAccessTime), &(buf->st_atim));
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftLastWriteTime), &(buf->st_mtim));
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftCreationTime), &(buf->st_ctim));
 		return 0;
 	}
-error:
+
 	switch (GetLastError()) {
 	case ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED:
 	case ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION:
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 07/18] mingw: factor out the retry logic

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

In several places, Git's Windows-specific code follows the pattern where
it tries to perform an operation, and retries several times when that
operation fails, sleeping an increasing amount of time, before finally
giving up and asking the user whether to rety (after, say, closing an
editor that held a handle to a file, preventing the operation from
succeeding).

This logic is a bit hard to use, and inconsistent:
`mingw_unlink()` and `mingw_rmdir()` duplicate the code to retry,
and both of them do so incompletely. They also do not restore `errno` if the
user answers 'no'.

Introduce a `retry_ask_yes_no()` helper function that handles retry with
small delay, asking the user, and restoring `errno`.

Note that in `mingw_unlink()`, we include the `_wchmod()` call in the
retry loop (which may fail if the file is locked exclusively).

In `mingw_rmdir()`, we include special error handling in the retry loop.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 104 ++++++++++++++++++++++---------------------------
 1 file changed, 46 insertions(+), 58 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index c7571951dc..26e64c6a5a 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -28,8 +28,6 @@
 
 #define HCAST(type, handle) ((type)(intptr_t)handle)
 
-static const int delay[] = { 0, 1, 10, 20, 40 };
-
 void open_in_gdb(void)
 {
 	static struct child_process cp = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
@@ -205,15 +203,12 @@ static int read_yes_no_answer(void)
 	return -1;
 }
 
-static int ask_yes_no_if_possible(const char *format, ...)
+static int ask_yes_no_if_possible(const char *format, va_list args)
 {
 	char question[4096];
 	const char *retry_hook;
-	va_list args;
 
-	va_start(args, format);
 	vsnprintf(question, sizeof(question), format, args);
-	va_end(args);
 
 	retry_hook = mingw_getenv("GIT_ASK_YESNO");
 	if (retry_hook) {
@@ -238,6 +233,31 @@ static int ask_yes_no_if_possible(const char *format, ...)
 	}
 }
 
+static int retry_ask_yes_no(int *tries, const char *format, ...)
+{
+	static const int delay[] = { 0, 1, 10, 20, 40 };
+	va_list args;
+	int result, saved_errno = errno;
+
+	if ((*tries) < ARRAY_SIZE(delay)) {
+		/*
+		 * We assume that some other process had the file open at the wrong
+		 * moment and retry. In order to give the other process a higher
+		 * chance to complete its operation, we give up our time slice now.
+		 * If we have to retry again, we do sleep a bit.
+		 */
+		Sleep(delay[*tries]);
+		(*tries)++;
+		return 1;
+	}
+
+	va_start(args, format);
+	result = ask_yes_no_if_possible(format, args);
+	va_end(args);
+	errno = saved_errno;
+	return result;
+}
+
 /* Windows only */
 enum hide_dotfiles_type {
 	HIDE_DOTFILES_FALSE = 0,
@@ -298,7 +318,7 @@ static wchar_t *normalize_ntpath(wchar_t *wbuf)
 
 int mingw_unlink(const char *pathname, int handle_in_use_error)
 {
-	int ret, tries = 0;
+	int tries = 0;
 	wchar_t wpathname[MAX_PATH];
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wpathname, pathname) < 0)
 		return -1;
@@ -306,29 +326,19 @@ int mingw_unlink(const char *pathname, int handle_in_use_error)
 	if (DeleteFileW(wpathname))
 		return 0;
 
-	/* read-only files cannot be removed */
-	_wchmod(wpathname, 0666);
-	while ((ret = _wunlink(wpathname)) == -1 && tries < ARRAY_SIZE(delay)) {
+	do {
+		/* read-only files cannot be removed */
+		_wchmod(wpathname, 0666);
+		if (!_wunlink(wpathname))
+			return 0;
 		if (!is_file_in_use_error(GetLastError()))
 			break;
 		if (!handle_in_use_error)
-			return ret;
+			return -1;
 
-		/*
-		 * We assume that some other process had the source or
-		 * destination file open at the wrong moment and retry.
-		 * In order to give the other process a higher chance to
-		 * complete its operation, we give up our time slice now.
-		 * If we have to retry again, we do sleep a bit.
-		 */
-		Sleep(delay[tries]);
-		tries++;
-	}
-	while (ret == -1 && is_file_in_use_error(GetLastError()) &&
-	       ask_yes_no_if_possible("Unlink of file '%s' failed. "
-			"Should I try again?", pathname))
-	       ret = _wunlink(wpathname);
-	return ret;
+	} while (retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Unlink of file '%s' failed. "
+			"Should I try again?", pathname));
+	return -1;
 }
 
 static int is_dir_empty(const wchar_t *wpath)
@@ -355,7 +365,7 @@ static int is_dir_empty(const wchar_t *wpath)
 
 int mingw_rmdir(const char *pathname)
 {
-	int ret, tries = 0;
+	int tries = 0;
 	wchar_t wpathname[MAX_PATH];
 	struct stat st;
 
@@ -381,7 +391,11 @@ int mingw_rmdir(const char *pathname)
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wpathname, pathname) < 0)
 		return -1;
 
-	while ((ret = _wrmdir(wpathname)) == -1 && tries < ARRAY_SIZE(delay)) {
+	do {
+		if (!_wrmdir(wpathname)) {
+			invalidate_lstat_cache();
+			return 0;
+		}
 		if (!is_file_in_use_error(GetLastError()))
 			errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
 		if (errno != EACCES)
@@ -390,23 +404,9 @@ int mingw_rmdir(const char *pathname)
 			errno = ENOTEMPTY;
 			break;
 		}
-		/*
-		 * We assume that some other process had the source or
-		 * destination file open at the wrong moment and retry.
-		 * In order to give the other process a higher chance to
-		 * complete its operation, we give up our time slice now.
-		 * If we have to retry again, we do sleep a bit.
-		 */
-		Sleep(delay[tries]);
-		tries++;
-	}
-	while (ret == -1 && errno == EACCES && is_file_in_use_error(GetLastError()) &&
-	       ask_yes_no_if_possible("Deletion of directory '%s' failed. "
-			"Should I try again?", pathname))
-	       ret = _wrmdir(wpathname);
-	if (!ret)
-		invalidate_lstat_cache();
-	return ret;
+	} while (retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Deletion of directory '%s' failed. "
+			"Should I try again?", pathname));
+	return -1;
 }
 
 static inline int needs_hiding(const char *path)
@@ -2384,20 +2384,8 @@ repeat:
 			SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs);
 		}
 	}
-	if (tries < ARRAY_SIZE(delay) && gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED) {
-		/*
-		 * We assume that some other process had the source or
-		 * destination file open at the wrong moment and retry.
-		 * In order to give the other process a higher chance to
-		 * complete its operation, we give up our time slice now.
-		 * If we have to retry again, we do sleep a bit.
-		 */
-		Sleep(delay[tries]);
-		tries++;
-		goto repeat;
-	}
 	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
-	       ask_yes_no_if_possible("Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
+	       retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
 		       "Should I try again?", pold, pnew))
 		goto repeat;
 
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 08/18] mingw: change default of `core.symlinks` to false

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

Symlinks on Windows don't work the same way as on Unix systems. For
example, there are different types of symlinks for directories and
files, and unless using a recent-ish Windows version in Developer Mode,
creating symlinks requires administrative privileges.

By default, disable symlink support on Windows. That is, users
explicitly have to enable it with `git config [--system|--global]
core.symlinks true`; For convenience, `git init` (and `git clone`)
will perform a test whether the current setup allows creating symlinks
and will configure that setting in the repository config.

The test suite ignores system / global config files. Allow
testing *with* symlink support by checking if native symlinks are
enabled in MSYS2 (via setting the special environment variable
`MSYS=winsymlinks:nativestrict` to ask the MSYS2 runtime to enable
creating symlinks).

Note: This assumes that Git's test suite is run in MSYS2's Bash, which
is true for the time being (an experiment to switch to BusyBox-w32
failed due to the experimental nature of BusyBox-w32).

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 9 +++++++++
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 26e64c6a5a..0fe00a5b70 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -2862,6 +2862,15 @@ static void setup_windows_environment(void)
 		if (!tmp && (tmp = getenv("USERPROFILE")))
 			setenv("HOME", tmp, 1);
 	}
+
+	/*
+	 * Change 'core.symlinks' default to false, unless native symlinks are
+	 * enabled in MSys2 (via 'MSYS=winsymlinks:nativestrict'). Thus we can
+	 * run the test suite (which doesn't obey config files) with or without
+	 * symlink support.
+	 */
+	if (!(tmp = getenv("MSYS")) || !strstr(tmp, "winsymlinks:nativestrict"))
+		has_symlinks = 0;
 }
 
 static void get_current_user_sid(PSID *sid, HANDLE *linked_token)
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 09/18] mingw: add symlink-specific error codes

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

The Win32 API calls do not set `errno`; Instead, error codes for failed
operations must be obtained via the `GetLastError()` function. Git would
not know what to do with those error values, though, which is why Git's
Windows compatibility layer translates them to `errno` values.

Let's handle a couple of symlink-related error codes that will become
relevant with the upcoming support for symlinks on Windows.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 0fe00a5b70..0e8807196f 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ int err_win_to_posix(DWORD winerr)
 	case ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER: error = EINVAL; break;
 	case ERROR_INVALID_PASSWORD: error = EPERM; break;
 	case ERROR_INVALID_PRIMARY_GROUP: error = EINVAL; break;
+	case ERROR_INVALID_REPARSE_DATA: error = EINVAL; break;
 	case ERROR_INVALID_SIGNAL_NUMBER: error = EINVAL; break;
 	case ERROR_INVALID_TARGET_HANDLE: error = EIO; break;
 	case ERROR_INVALID_WORKSTATION: error = EACCES; break;
@@ -116,6 +117,7 @@ int err_win_to_posix(DWORD winerr)
 	case ERROR_NEGATIVE_SEEK: error = ESPIPE; break;
 	case ERROR_NOACCESS: error = EFAULT; break;
 	case ERROR_NONE_MAPPED: error = EINVAL; break;
+	case ERROR_NOT_A_REPARSE_POINT: error = EINVAL; break;
 	case ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY: error = ENOMEM; break;
 	case ERROR_NOT_READY: error = EAGAIN; break;
 	case ERROR_NOT_SAME_DEVICE: error = EXDEV; break;
@@ -136,6 +138,9 @@ int err_win_to_posix(DWORD winerr)
 	case ERROR_PIPE_NOT_CONNECTED: error = EPIPE; break;
 	case ERROR_PRIVILEGE_NOT_HELD: error = EACCES; break;
 	case ERROR_READ_FAULT: error = EIO; break;
+	case ERROR_REPARSE_ATTRIBUTE_CONFLICT: error = EINVAL; break;
+	case ERROR_REPARSE_TAG_INVALID: error = EINVAL; break;
+	case ERROR_REPARSE_TAG_MISMATCH: error = EINVAL; break;
 	case ERROR_SEEK: error = EIO; break;
 	case ERROR_SEEK_ON_DEVICE: error = ESPIPE; break;
 	case ERROR_SHARING_BUFFER_EXCEEDED: error = ENFILE; break;
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 10/18] mingw: handle symlinks to directories in `mingw_unlink()`

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

The `_wunlink()` and `DeleteFileW()` functions refuse to delete symlinks
to directories on Windows; The error code woutl be `ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED`
in that case. Take that error code as an indicator that we need to try
`_wrmdir()` as well. In the best case, it will remove a symlink. In the
worst case, it will fail with the same error code again.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 9 ++++++++-
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 0e8807196f..b1cc30d0f1 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -338,9 +338,16 @@ int mingw_unlink(const char *pathname, int handle_in_use_error)
 			return 0;
 		if (!is_file_in_use_error(GetLastError()))
 			break;
+		/*
+		 * _wunlink() / DeleteFileW() for directory symlinks fails with
+		 * ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED (EACCES), so try _wrmdir() as well. This is the
+		 * same error we get if a file is in use (already checked above).
+		 */
+		if (!_wrmdir(wpathname))
+			return 0;
+
 		if (!handle_in_use_error)
 			return -1;
-
 	} while (retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Unlink of file '%s' failed. "
 			"Should I try again?", pathname));
 	return -1;
-- 
gitgitgadget

Re: [PATCH 10/18] mingw: handle symlinks to directories in `mingw_unlink()`

[Ben Knoble]

> Le 17 déc. 2025 à 09:17, Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> a écrit :
> 
> From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> 
> The `_wunlink()` and `DeleteFileW()` functions refuse to delete symlinks
> to directories on Windows; The error code woutl be `ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED`

Casually reading; spotted “woutl.” Presumably would?

Re: [PATCH 10/18] mingw: handle symlinks to directories in `mingw_unlink()`

[Johannes Schindelin]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 476 bytes --]

Hi Ben,

On Wed, 17 Dec 2025, Ben Knoble wrote:

> 
> > Le 17 déc. 2025 à 09:17, Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> a écrit :
> > 
> > From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> > 
> > The `_wunlink()` and `DeleteFileW()` functions refuse to delete symlinks
> > to directories on Windows; The error code woutl be `ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED`
> 
> Casually reading; spotted “woutl.” Presumably would?

Thank you for spotting! Fixed,
Johannes

[PATCH 11/18] mingw: support renaming symlinks

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

Older MSVCRT's `_wrename()` function cannot rename symlinks over
existing files: it returns success without doing anything. Newer
MSVCR*.dll versions probably do not share this problem: according to CRT
sources, they just call `MoveFileEx()` with the `MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED`
flag.

Avoid the `_wrename()` call, and go with directly calling
`MoveFileEx()`, with proper error handling of course.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 38 ++++++++++++++++----------------------
 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index b1cc30d0f1..55f0bb478e 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -2275,7 +2275,7 @@ int mingw_accept(int sockfd1, struct sockaddr *sa, socklen_t *sz)
 int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
 {
 	static int supports_file_rename_info_ex = 1;
-	DWORD attrs, gle;
+	DWORD attrs = INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES, gle;
 	int tries = 0;
 	wchar_t wpold[MAX_PATH], wpnew[MAX_PATH];
 	int wpnew_len;
@@ -2286,15 +2286,6 @@ int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
 	if (wpnew_len < 0)
 		return -1;
 
-	/*
-	 * Try native rename() first to get errno right.
-	 * It is based on MoveFile(), which cannot overwrite existing files.
-	 */
-	if (!_wrename(wpold, wpnew))
-		return 0;
-	if (errno != EEXIST)
-		return -1;
-
 repeat:
 	if (supports_file_rename_info_ex) {
 		/*
@@ -2370,13 +2361,22 @@ repeat:
 		 * to retry.
 		 */
 	} else {
-		if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING))
+		if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew,
+				MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING | MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED))
 			return 0;
 		gle = GetLastError();
 	}
 
-	/* TODO: translate more errors */
-	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
+	/* revert file attributes on failure */
+	if (attrs != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES)
+		SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs);
+
+	if (!is_file_in_use_error(gle)) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(gle);
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	if (attrs == INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES &&
 	    (attrs = GetFileAttributesW(wpnew)) != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES) {
 		if (attrs & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) {
 			DWORD attrsold = GetFileAttributesW(wpold);
@@ -2388,16 +2388,10 @@ repeat:
 			return -1;
 		}
 		if ((attrs & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY) &&
-		    SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs & ~FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY)) {
-			if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING))
-				return 0;
-			gle = GetLastError();
-			/* revert file attributes on failure */
-			SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs);
-		}
+		    SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs & ~FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
+			goto repeat;
 	}
-	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
-	       retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
+	if (retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
 		       "Should I try again?", pold, pnew))
 		goto repeat;
 
-- 
gitgitgadget

Re: [PATCH 11/18] mingw: support renaming symlinks

[Johannes Sixt]

Am 17.12.25 um 15:08 schrieb Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget:
> From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> 
> Older MSVCRT's `_wrename()` function cannot rename symlinks over
> existing files: it returns success without doing anything. Newer
> MSVCR*.dll versions probably do not share this problem: according to CRT
> sources, they just call `MoveFileEx()` with the `MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED`
> flag.
> 
> Avoid the `_wrename()` call, and go with directly calling
> `MoveFileEx()`, with proper error handling of course.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
> ---
>  compat/mingw.c | 38 ++++++++++++++++----------------------
>  1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
> index b1cc30d0f1..55f0bb478e 100644
> --- a/compat/mingw.c
> +++ b/compat/mingw.c
> @@ -2275,7 +2275,7 @@ int mingw_accept(int sockfd1, struct sockaddr *sa, socklen_t *sz)
>  int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
>  {
>  	static int supports_file_rename_info_ex = 1;
> -	DWORD attrs, gle;
> +	DWORD attrs = INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES, gle;
>  	int tries = 0;
>  	wchar_t wpold[MAX_PATH], wpnew[MAX_PATH];
>  	int wpnew_len;
> @@ -2286,15 +2286,6 @@ int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
>  	if (wpnew_len < 0)
>  		return -1;
>  
> -	/*
> -	 * Try native rename() first to get errno right.
> -	 * It is based on MoveFile(), which cannot overwrite existing files.
> -	 */
> -	if (!_wrename(wpold, wpnew))
> -		return 0;
> -	if (errno != EEXIST)
> -		return -1;
> -
>  repeat:
>  	if (supports_file_rename_info_ex) {
>  		/*
> @@ -2370,13 +2361,22 @@ repeat:
>  		 * to retry.
>  		 */
>  	} else {
> -		if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING))
> +		if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew,
> +				MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING | MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED))
>  			return 0;
>  		gle = GetLastError();
>  	}
>  
> -	/* TODO: translate more errors */
> -	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
> +	/* revert file attributes on failure */
> +	if (attrs != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES)
> +		SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs);
> +
> +	if (!is_file_in_use_error(gle)) {
> +		errno = err_win_to_posix(gle);
> +		return -1;
> +	}
> +
> +	if (attrs == INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES &&
>  	    (attrs = GetFileAttributesW(wpnew)) != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES) {
>  		if (attrs & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) {
>  			DWORD attrsold = GetFileAttributesW(wpold);
> @@ -2388,16 +2388,10 @@ repeat:
>  			return -1;
>  		}
>  		if ((attrs & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY) &&
> -		    SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs & ~FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY)) {
> -			if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING))
> -				return 0;
> -			gle = GetLastError();
> -			/* revert file attributes on failure */
> -			SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs);
> -		}
> +		    SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs & ~FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
> +			goto repeat;
>  	}
> -	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
> -	       retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
> +	if (retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
>  		       "Should I try again?", pold, pnew))
>  		goto repeat;
>  

The logic in this function is incredibly convoluted. It does look
somewhat reasonable, at least on the non-error path, but whether the
variable attr is changed and reset as needed after 'goto repeat' and the
various failure modes, I cannot tell. I give up and trust that this code
has been battle-tested during the past decade and works as desired.

-- Hannes

Re: [PATCH 11/18] mingw: support renaming symlinks

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi Hannes,

On Thu, 18 Dec 2025, Johannes Sixt wrote:

> Am 17.12.25 um 15:08 schrieb Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget:
> > From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> > 
> > Older MSVCRT's `_wrename()` function cannot rename symlinks over
> > existing files: it returns success without doing anything. Newer
> > MSVCR*.dll versions probably do not share this problem: according to CRT
> > sources, they just call `MoveFileEx()` with the `MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED`
> > flag.
> > 
> > Avoid the `_wrename()` call, and go with directly calling
> > `MoveFileEx()`, with proper error handling of course.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> > Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
> > ---
> >  compat/mingw.c | 38 ++++++++++++++++----------------------
> >  1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
> > index b1cc30d0f1..55f0bb478e 100644
> > --- a/compat/mingw.c
> > +++ b/compat/mingw.c
> > @@ -2275,7 +2275,7 @@ int mingw_accept(int sockfd1, struct sockaddr *sa, socklen_t *sz)
> >  int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
> >  {
> >  	static int supports_file_rename_info_ex = 1;
> > -	DWORD attrs, gle;
> > +	DWORD attrs = INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES, gle;
> >  	int tries = 0;
> >  	wchar_t wpold[MAX_PATH], wpnew[MAX_PATH];
> >  	int wpnew_len;
> > @@ -2286,15 +2286,6 @@ int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
> >  	if (wpnew_len < 0)
> >  		return -1;
> >  
> > -	/*
> > -	 * Try native rename() first to get errno right.
> > -	 * It is based on MoveFile(), which cannot overwrite existing files.
> > -	 */
> > -	if (!_wrename(wpold, wpnew))
> > -		return 0;
> > -	if (errno != EEXIST)
> > -		return -1;
> > -
> >  repeat:
> >  	if (supports_file_rename_info_ex) {
> >  		/*
> > @@ -2370,13 +2361,22 @@ repeat:
> >  		 * to retry.
> >  		 */
> >  	} else {
> > -		if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING))
> > +		if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew,
> > +				MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING | MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED))
> >  			return 0;
> >  		gle = GetLastError();
> >  	}
> >  
> > -	/* TODO: translate more errors */
> > -	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
> > +	/* revert file attributes on failure */
> > +	if (attrs != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES)
> > +		SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs);
> > +
> > +	if (!is_file_in_use_error(gle)) {
> > +		errno = err_win_to_posix(gle);
> > +		return -1;
> > +	}
> > +
> > +	if (attrs == INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES &&
> >  	    (attrs = GetFileAttributesW(wpnew)) != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES) {
> >  		if (attrs & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) {
> >  			DWORD attrsold = GetFileAttributesW(wpold);
> > @@ -2388,16 +2388,10 @@ repeat:
> >  			return -1;
> >  		}
> >  		if ((attrs & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY) &&
> > -		    SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs & ~FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY)) {
> > -			if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING))
> > -				return 0;
> > -			gle = GetLastError();
> > -			/* revert file attributes on failure */
> > -			SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs);
> > -		}
> > +		    SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs & ~FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
> > +			goto repeat;
> >  	}
> > -	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
> > -	       retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
> > +	if (retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
> >  		       "Should I try again?", pold, pnew))
> >  		goto repeat;
> >  
> 
> The logic in this function is incredibly convoluted. It does look
> somewhat reasonable, at least on the non-error path, but whether the
> variable attr is changed and reset as needed after 'goto repeat' and the
> various failure modes, I cannot tell. I give up and trust that this code
> has been battle-tested during the past decade and works as desired.

I do agree that the logic is quite convoluted. Historically grown, like.
But as you suspect: This has been battle-hardened, and I am loathe to
introduce a regression by making it prettier at this point. This is tried
and tested code, and that counts for something.

Ciao,
Johannes

[PATCH 12/18] mingw: allow `mingw_chdir()` to change to symlink-resolved directories

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

If symlinks are enabled, resolve all symlinks when changing directories,
as required by POSIX.

Note: Git's `real_path()` function bases its link resolution algorithm
on this property of `chdir()`. Unfortunately, the current directory on
Windows is limited to only MAX_PATH (260) characters. Therefore using
symlinks and long paths in combination may be problematic.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 20 +++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 55f0bb478e..5d2a8c247c 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -866,9 +866,27 @@ int mingw_access(const char *filename, int mode)
 int mingw_chdir(const char *dirname)
 {
 	wchar_t wdirname[MAX_PATH];
+
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wdirname, dirname) < 0)
 		return -1;
-	return _wchdir(wdirname);
+
+	if (has_symlinks) {
+		HANDLE hnd = CreateFileW(wdirname, 0,
+				FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
+				OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
+		if (hnd == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
+			errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+			return -1;
+		}
+		if (!GetFinalPathNameByHandleW(hnd, wdirname, ARRAY_SIZE(wdirname), 0)) {
+			errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+			CloseHandle(hnd);
+			return -1;
+		}
+		CloseHandle(hnd);
+	}
+
+	return _wchdir(normalize_ntpath(wdirname));
 }
 
 int mingw_chmod(const char *filename, int mode)
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 13/18] mingw: implement `readlink()`

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

Implement `readlink()` by reading NTFS reparse points via the
`read_reparse_point()` function that was introduced earlier to determine
the length of symlink targets. Works for symlinks and directory
junctions. If symlinks are disabled, fail with `ENOSYS`.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw-posix.h |  3 +--
 compat/mingw.c       | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw-posix.h b/compat/mingw-posix.h
index 0939feff27..896aa976b1 100644
--- a/compat/mingw-posix.h
+++ b/compat/mingw-posix.h
@@ -121,8 +121,6 @@ struct utsname {
  * trivial stubs
  */
 
-static inline int readlink(const char *path UNUSED, char *buf UNUSED, size_t bufsiz UNUSED)
-{ errno = ENOSYS; return -1; }
 static inline int symlink(const char *oldpath UNUSED, const char *newpath UNUSED)
 { errno = ENOSYS; return -1; }
 static inline int fchmod(int fildes UNUSED, mode_t mode UNUSED)
@@ -197,6 +195,7 @@ int setitimer(int type, struct itimerval *in, struct itimerval *out);
 int sigaction(int sig, struct sigaction *in, struct sigaction *out);
 int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);
 int uname(struct utsname *buf);
+int readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);
 
 /*
  * replacements of existing functions
diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 5d2a8c247c..b407a2ac07 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -2698,6 +2698,30 @@ int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath)
 	return 0;
 }
 
+int readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz)
+{
+	WCHAR wpath[MAX_PATH];
+	char tmpbuf[MAX_PATH];
+	int len;
+	DWORD tag;
+
+	if (xutftowcs_path(wpath, path) < 0)
+		return -1;
+
+	if (read_reparse_point(wpath, TRUE, tmpbuf, &len, &tag) < 0)
+		return -1;
+
+	/*
+	 * Adapt to strange readlink() API: Copy up to bufsiz *bytes*, potentially
+	 * cutting off a UTF-8 sequence. Insufficient bufsize is *not* a failure
+	 * condition. There is no conversion function that produces invalid UTF-8,
+	 * so convert to a (hopefully large enough) temporary buffer, then memcpy
+	 * the requested number of bytes (including '\0' for robustness).
+	 */
+	memcpy(buf, tmpbuf, min(bufsiz, len + 1));
+	return min(bufsiz, len);
+}
+
 pid_t waitpid(pid_t pid, int *status, int options)
 {
 	HANDLE h = OpenProcess(SYNCHRONIZE | PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION,
-- 
gitgitgadget

Re: [PATCH 13/18] mingw: implement `readlink()`

[Johannes Sixt]

Am 17.12.25 um 15:08 schrieb Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget:
> From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> 
> Implement `readlink()` by reading NTFS reparse points via the
> `read_reparse_point()` function that was introduced earlier to determine
> the length of symlink targets. Works for symlinks and directory
> junctions. If symlinks are disabled, fail with `ENOSYS`.

This last sentence is obsolete, I think, because I cannot see how the
patch achieves a failure with ENOSYS.

> 
> Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
> ---
>  compat/mingw-posix.h |  3 +--
>  compat/mingw.c       | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/compat/mingw-posix.h b/compat/mingw-posix.h
> index 0939feff27..896aa976b1 100644
> --- a/compat/mingw-posix.h
> +++ b/compat/mingw-posix.h
> @@ -121,8 +121,6 @@ struct utsname {
>   * trivial stubs
>   */
>  
> -static inline int readlink(const char *path UNUSED, char *buf UNUSED, size_t bufsiz UNUSED)
> -{ errno = ENOSYS; return -1; }
>  static inline int symlink(const char *oldpath UNUSED, const char *newpath UNUSED)
>  { errno = ENOSYS; return -1; }
>  static inline int fchmod(int fildes UNUSED, mode_t mode UNUSED)
> @@ -197,6 +195,7 @@ int setitimer(int type, struct itimerval *in, struct itimerval *out);
>  int sigaction(int sig, struct sigaction *in, struct sigaction *out);
>  int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);
>  int uname(struct utsname *buf);
> +int readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);
>  
>  /*
>   * replacements of existing functions
> diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
> index 5d2a8c247c..b407a2ac07 100644
> --- a/compat/mingw.c
> +++ b/compat/mingw.c
> @@ -2698,6 +2698,30 @@ int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath)
>  	return 0;
>  }
>  
> +int readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz)
> +{
> +	WCHAR wpath[MAX_PATH];
> +	char tmpbuf[MAX_PATH];
> +	int len;
> +	DWORD tag;
> +
> +	if (xutftowcs_path(wpath, path) < 0)
> +		return -1;
> +
> +	if (read_reparse_point(wpath, TRUE, tmpbuf, &len, &tag) < 0)
> +		return -1;
> +
> +	/*
> +	 * Adapt to strange readlink() API: Copy up to bufsiz *bytes*, potentially
> +	 * cutting off a UTF-8 sequence. Insufficient bufsize is *not* a failure
> +	 * condition. There is no conversion function that produces invalid UTF-8,
> +	 * so convert to a (hopefully large enough) temporary buffer, then memcpy
> +	 * the requested number of bytes (including '\0' for robustness).
> +	 */
> +	memcpy(buf, tmpbuf, min(bufsiz, len + 1));
> +	return min(bufsiz, len);
> +}
> +
>  pid_t waitpid(pid_t pid, int *status, int options)
>  {
>  	HANDLE h = OpenProcess(SYNCHRONIZE | PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION,

-- Hannes

Re: [PATCH 13/18] mingw: implement `readlink()`

[Johannes Schindelin]

Hi Hannes,

On Thu, 18 Dec 2025, Johannes Sixt wrote:

> Am 17.12.25 um 15:08 schrieb Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget:
> > From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
> > 
> > Implement `readlink()` by reading NTFS reparse points via the
> > `read_reparse_point()` function that was introduced earlier to determine
> > the length of symlink targets. Works for symlinks and directory
> > junctions. If symlinks are disabled, fail with `ENOSYS`.
> 
> This last sentence is obsolete, I think, because I cannot see how the
> patch achieves a failure with ENOSYS.

Indeed, this is obsolete. Just like with the ELOOP commit message comment
of 02/18, I must have dropped this because reading symlinks should work
even if creating symlinks has been disabled via `core.symlinks`. Here is
the range-diff between the last version of the patch that still had the
ENOSYS logic and the first version that lacked it (Git for Windows-only
commits):

1:  4f353d988de4 ! 1:  1d079621427c Win32: implement readlink()

   @@ compat/mingw.c: int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath)
    +	char tmpbuf[MAX_LONG_PATH];
    +	int len;
    +
   -+	/* fail if symlinks are disabled */
   -+	if (!has_symlinks) {
   -+		errno = ENOSYS;
   -+		return -1;
   -+	}
   -+
    +	if (xutftowcs_long_path(wpath, path) < 0)
    +		return -1;
    +

So: Unfortunately I have no record that I can readily produce that would
motivate that change. Given that it happened during the same v2.19.2
timeframe as the ELOOP change, there must have been some broader
discussion about this, but I could not find it, not even in the release
notes of that version:
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/releases/tag/v2.19.2.windows.1

All I can present is the reconstructed rationale that just because Git is
not allowed (or able) to create symlinks does not mean that they cannot
exist, and therefore Git should at least read and parse them as expected,
independent of the value of `core.symlinks`.

So yes, this part of the commit message is just simply confusing at this
point, so I'll drop it.

Ciao,
Johannes

[PATCH 14/18] mingw: implement basic `symlink()` functionality (file symlinks only)

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

Implement `symlink()`. This implementation always creates _file_
symlinks (remember: Windows discerns between symlinks pointing to
directories and those pointing to files). Support for directory symlinks
will be added in a subseqeuent commit.

This implementation fails with `ENOSYS` if symlinks are disabled or
unsupported.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw-posix.h |  3 +--
 compat/mingw.c       | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw-posix.h b/compat/mingw-posix.h
index 896aa976b1..2d989fd762 100644
--- a/compat/mingw-posix.h
+++ b/compat/mingw-posix.h
@@ -121,8 +121,6 @@ struct utsname {
  * trivial stubs
  */
 
-static inline int symlink(const char *oldpath UNUSED, const char *newpath UNUSED)
-{ errno = ENOSYS; return -1; }
 static inline int fchmod(int fildes UNUSED, mode_t mode UNUSED)
 { errno = ENOSYS; return -1; }
 #ifndef __MINGW64_VERSION_MAJOR
@@ -195,6 +193,7 @@ int setitimer(int type, struct itimerval *in, struct itimerval *out);
 int sigaction(int sig, struct sigaction *in, struct sigaction *out);
 int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);
 int uname(struct utsname *buf);
+int symlink(const char *target, const char *link);
 int readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);
 
 /*
diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index b407a2ac07..8d366794c4 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -2698,6 +2698,34 @@ int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath)
 	return 0;
 }
 
+int symlink(const char *target, const char *link)
+{
+	wchar_t wtarget[MAX_PATH], wlink[MAX_PATH];
+	int len;
+
+	/* fail if symlinks are disabled or API is not supported (WinXP) */
+	if (!has_symlinks) {
+		errno = ENOSYS;
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	if ((len = xutftowcs_path(wtarget, target)) < 0
+			|| xutftowcs_path(wlink, link) < 0)
+		return -1;
+
+	/* convert target dir separators to backslashes */
+	while (len--)
+		if (wtarget[len] == '/')
+			wtarget[len] = '\\';
+
+	/* create file symlink */
+	if (!CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, 0)) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		return -1;
+	}
+	return 0;
+}
+
 int readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz)
 {
 	WCHAR wpath[MAX_PATH];
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 15/18] mingw: add support for symlinks to directories

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>

Symlinks on Windows have a flag that indicates whether the target is a
file or a directory. Symlinks of wrong type simply don't work. This even
affects core Win32 APIs (e.g. `DeleteFile()` refuses to delete directory
symlinks).

However, `CreateFile()` with FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS does work. Check
the target type by first creating a tentative file symlink, opening it,
and checking the type of the resulting handle. If it is a directory,
recreate the symlink with the directory flag set.

It is possible to create symlinks before the target exists (or in case
of symlinks to symlinks: before the target type is known). If this
happens, create a tentative file symlink and postpone the directory
decision: keep a list of phantom symlinks to be processed whenever a new
directory is created in `mingw_mkdir()`.

Limitations: This algorithm may fail if a link target changes from file
to directory or vice versa, or if the target directory is created in
another process. It's the best Git can do, though.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 164 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 164 insertions(+)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 8d366794c4..59a32e454e 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -296,6 +296,131 @@ int mingw_core_config(const char *var, const char *value,
 	return 0;
 }
 
+static inline int is_wdir_sep(wchar_t wchar)
+{
+	return wchar == L'/' || wchar == L'\\';
+}
+
+static const wchar_t *make_relative_to(const wchar_t *path,
+				       const wchar_t *relative_to, wchar_t *out,
+				       size_t size)
+{
+	size_t i = wcslen(relative_to), len;
+
+	/* Is `path` already absolute? */
+	if (is_wdir_sep(path[0]) ||
+	    (iswalpha(path[0]) && path[1] == L':' && is_wdir_sep(path[2])))
+		return path;
+
+	while (i > 0 && !is_wdir_sep(relative_to[i - 1]))
+		i--;
+
+	/* Is `relative_to` in the current directory? */
+	if (!i)
+		return path;
+
+	len = wcslen(path);
+	if (i + len + 1 > size) {
+		error("Could not make '%ls' relative to '%ls' (too large)",
+		      path, relative_to);
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	memcpy(out, relative_to, i * sizeof(wchar_t));
+	wcscpy(out + i, path);
+	return out;
+}
+
+enum phantom_symlink_result {
+	PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY,
+	PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE,
+	PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DIRECTORY
+};
+
+/*
+ * Changes a file symlink to a directory symlink if the target exists and is a
+ * directory.
+ */
+static enum phantom_symlink_result
+process_phantom_symlink(const wchar_t *wtarget, const wchar_t *wlink)
+{
+	HANDLE hnd;
+	BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION fdata;
+	wchar_t relative[MAX_PATH];
+	const wchar_t *rel;
+
+	/* check that wlink is still a file symlink */
+	if ((GetFileAttributesW(wlink)
+			& (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY))
+			!= FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT)
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE;
+
+	/* make it relative, if necessary */
+	rel = make_relative_to(wtarget, wlink, relative, ARRAY_SIZE(relative));
+	if (!rel)
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE;
+
+	/* let Windows resolve the link by opening it */
+	hnd = CreateFileW(rel, 0,
+			FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
+			OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
+	if (hnd == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY;
+	}
+
+	if (!GetFileInformationByHandle(hnd, &fdata)) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		CloseHandle(hnd);
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY;
+	}
+	CloseHandle(hnd);
+
+	/* if target exists and is a file, we're done */
+	if (!(fdata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY))
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE;
+
+	/* otherwise recreate the symlink with directory flag */
+	if (DeleteFileW(wlink) && CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, 1))
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DIRECTORY;
+
+	errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+	return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY;
+}
+
+/* keep track of newly created symlinks to non-existing targets */
+struct phantom_symlink_info {
+	struct phantom_symlink_info *next;
+	wchar_t *wlink;
+	wchar_t *wtarget;
+};
+
+static struct phantom_symlink_info *phantom_symlinks = NULL;
+static CRITICAL_SECTION phantom_symlinks_cs;
+
+static void process_phantom_symlinks(void)
+{
+	struct phantom_symlink_info *current, **psi;
+	EnterCriticalSection(&phantom_symlinks_cs);
+	/* process phantom symlinks list */
+	psi = &phantom_symlinks;
+	while ((current = *psi)) {
+		enum phantom_symlink_result result = process_phantom_symlink(
+				current->wtarget, current->wlink);
+		if (result == PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY) {
+			psi = &current->next;
+		} else {
+			/* symlink was processed, remove from list */
+			*psi = current->next;
+			free(current);
+			/* if symlink was a directory, start over */
+			if (result == PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DIRECTORY)
+				psi = &phantom_symlinks;
+		}
+	}
+	LeaveCriticalSection(&phantom_symlinks_cs);
+}
+
 /* Normalizes NT paths as returned by some low-level APIs. */
 static wchar_t *normalize_ntpath(wchar_t *wbuf)
 {
@@ -479,6 +604,8 @@ int mingw_mkdir(const char *path, int mode UNUSED)
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wpath, path) < 0)
 		return -1;
 	ret = _wmkdir(wpath);
+	if (!ret)
+		process_phantom_symlinks();
 	if (!ret && needs_hiding(path))
 		return set_hidden_flag(wpath, 1);
 	return ret;
@@ -2723,6 +2850,42 @@ int symlink(const char *target, const char *link)
 		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
 		return -1;
 	}
+
+	/* convert to directory symlink if target exists */
+	switch (process_phantom_symlink(wtarget, wlink)) {
+	case PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY:	{
+		/* if target doesn't exist, add to phantom symlinks list */
+		wchar_t wfullpath[MAX_PATH];
+		struct phantom_symlink_info *psi;
+
+		/* convert to absolute path to be independent of cwd */
+		len = GetFullPathNameW(wlink, MAX_PATH, wfullpath, NULL);
+		if (!len || len >= MAX_PATH) {
+			errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+			return -1;
+		}
+
+		/* over-allocate and fill phantom_symlink_info structure */
+		psi = xmalloc(sizeof(struct phantom_symlink_info)
+			+ sizeof(wchar_t) * (len + wcslen(wtarget) + 2));
+		psi->wlink = (wchar_t *)(psi + 1);
+		wcscpy(psi->wlink, wfullpath);
+		psi->wtarget = psi->wlink + len + 1;
+		wcscpy(psi->wtarget, wtarget);
+
+		EnterCriticalSection(&phantom_symlinks_cs);
+		psi->next = phantom_symlinks;
+		phantom_symlinks = psi;
+		LeaveCriticalSection(&phantom_symlinks_cs);
+		break;
+	}
+	case PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DIRECTORY:
+		/* if we created a dir symlink, process other phantom symlinks */
+		process_phantom_symlinks();
+		break;
+	default:
+		break;
+	}
 	return 0;
 }
 
@@ -3424,6 +3587,7 @@ int wmain(int argc, const wchar_t **wargv)
 
 	/* initialize critical section for waitpid pinfo_t list */
 	InitializeCriticalSection(&pinfo_cs);
+	InitializeCriticalSection(&phantom_symlinks_cs);
 
 	/* set up default file mode and file modes for stdin/out/err */
 	_fmode = _O_BINARY;
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 16/18] mingw: try to create symlinks without elevated permissions

[Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget]

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

As of Windows 10 Build 14972 in Developer Mode, a new flag is supported
by `CreateSymbolicLink()` to create symbolic links even when running
outside of an elevated session (which was previously required).

This new flag is called `SYMBOLIC_LINK_FLAG_ALLOW_UNPRIVILEGED_CREATE`
and has the numeric value 0x02.

Previous Windows 10 versions will not understand that flag and return
an `ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER`, therefore we have to be careful to try
passing that flag only when the build number indicates that it is
supported.

For more information about the new flag, see this blog post:
https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2016/12/02/symlinks-windows-10/

Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 59a32e454e..3e2110a87a 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -331,6 +331,8 @@ static const wchar_t *make_relative_to(const wchar_t *path,
 	return out;
 }
 
+static DWORD symlink_file_flags = 0, symlink_directory_flags = 1;
+
 enum phantom_symlink_result {
 	PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY,
 	PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE,
@@ -381,7 +383,8 @@ process_phantom_symlink(const wchar_t *wtarget, const wchar_t *wlink)
 		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE;
 
 	/* otherwise recreate the symlink with directory flag */
-	if (DeleteFileW(wlink) && CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, 1))
+	if (DeleteFileW(wlink) &&
+	    CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, symlink_directory_flags))
 		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DIRECTORY;
 
 	errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
@@ -2846,7 +2849,7 @@ int symlink(const char *target, const char *link)
 			wtarget[len] = '\\';
 
 	/* create file symlink */
-	if (!CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, 0)) {
+	if (!CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, symlink_file_flags)) {
 		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
 		return -1;
 	}
@@ -3523,6 +3526,24 @@ static void maybe_redirect_std_handles(void)
 				  GENERIC_WRITE, FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING);
 }
 
+static void adjust_symlink_flags(void)
+{
+	/*
+	 * Starting with Windows 10 Build 14972, symbolic links can be created
+	 * using CreateSymbolicLink() without elevation by passing the flag
+	 * SYMBOLIC_LINK_FLAG_ALLOW_UNPRIVILEGED_CREATE (0x02) as last
+	 * parameter, provided the Developer Mode has been enabled. Some
+	 * earlier Windows versions complain about this flag with an
+	 * ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER, hence we have to test the build number
+	 * specifically.
+	 */
+	if (GetVersion() >= 14972 << 16) {
+		symlink_file_flags |= 2;
+		symlink_directory_flags |= 2;
+	}
+
+}
+
 #ifdef _MSC_VER
 #ifdef _DEBUG
 #include <crtdbg.h>
@@ -3558,6 +3579,7 @@ int wmain(int argc, const wchar_t **wargv)
 #endif
 
 	maybe_redirect_std_handles();
+	adjust_symlink_flags();
 
 	/* determine size of argv and environ conversion buffer */
 	maxlen = wcslen(wargv[0]);
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 17/18] mingw: emulate `stat()` a little more faithfully

[Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget]

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

When creating directories via `safe_create_leading_directories()`, we
might encounter an already-existing directory which is not
readable by the current user. To handle that situation, Git's code calls
`stat()` to determine whether we're looking at a directory.

In such a case, `CreateFile()` will fail, though, no matter what, and
consequently `mingw_stat()` will fail, too. But POSIX semantics seem to
still allow `stat()` to go forward.

So let's call `mingw_lstat()` to the rescue if we fail to get a file
handle due to denied permission in `mingw_stat()`, and fill the stat
info that way.

We need to be careful to not allow this to go forward in case that we're
looking at a symbolic link: to resolve the link, we would still have to
create a file handle, and we just found out that we cannot. Therefore,
`stat()` still needs to fail with `EACCES` in that case.

This fixes https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/2531.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 14 +++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 3e2110a87a..628a3941d2 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -1273,7 +1273,19 @@ int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 			FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
 			OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
 	if (hnd == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
-		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		DWORD err = GetLastError();
+
+		if (err == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
+		    !mingw_lstat(file_name, buf) &&
+		    !S_ISLNK(buf->st_mode))
+			/*
+			 * POSIX semantics state to still try to fill
+			 * information, even if permission is denied to create
+			 * a file handle.
+			 */
+			return 0;
+
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(err);
 		return -1;
 	}
 	result = get_file_info_by_handle(hnd, buf);
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH 18/18] mingw: special-case index entries for symlinks with buggy size

[Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget]

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

In https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/pull/2637, we fixed a bug
where symbolic links' target path sizes were recorded incorrectly in the
index. The downside of this fix was that every user with tracked
symbolic links in their checkouts would see them as modified in `git
status`, but not in `git diff`, and only a `git add <path>` (or `git add
-u`) would "fix" this.

Let's do better than that: we can detect that situation and simply
pretend that a symbolic link with a known bad size (or a size that just
happens to be that bad size, a _very_ unlikely scenario because it would
overflow our buffers due to the trailing NUL byte) means that it needs
to be re-checked as if we had just checked it out.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 read-cache.c | 11 +++++++++++
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)

diff --git a/read-cache.c b/read-cache.c
index 990d4ead0d..260f4b3b2f 100644
--- a/read-cache.c
+++ b/read-cache.c
@@ -470,6 +470,17 @@ int ie_modified(struct index_state *istate,
 	 * then we know it is.
 	 */
 	if ((changed & DATA_CHANGED) &&
+#ifdef GIT_WINDOWS_NATIVE
+	    /*
+	     * Work around Git for Windows v2.27.0 fixing a bug where symlinks'
+	     * target path lengths were not read at all, and instead recorded
+	     * as 4096: now, all symlinks would appear as modified.
+	     *
+	     * So let's just special-case symlinks with a target path length
+	     * (i.e. `sd_size`) of 4096 and force them to be re-checked.
+	     */
+	    (!S_ISLNK(st->st_mode) || ce->ce_stat_data.sd_size != MAX_PATH) &&
+#endif
 	    (S_ISGITLINK(ce->ce_mode) || ce->ce_stat_data.sd_size != 0))
 		return changed;
 
-- 
gitgitgadget

Re: [PATCH 00/18] Support symbolic links on Windows

[Junio C Hamano]

"Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
writes:

> This finally upstreams Git for Windows' support for Windows' branch of
> symbolic links, which has been maturing since 2015. It is based off of
> js/prep-symlink-windows.

The three topics taken together touch 19 paths in total, about a
half of which are t/ test files.

I've read the changes to generic parts (i.e., outside compat/) and
saw nothing questionable.  Very nicely done.

Thanks.

 apply.c                             |   2 +-
 compat/mingw-posix.h                |   6 +-
 compat/mingw.c                      | 667 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
 compat/win32.h                      |   6 +-
 compat/win32/dirent.c               |   5 +-
 environment.c                       |   4 +-
 environment.h                       |   2 +
 lockfile.c                          |   4 +-
 read-cache.c                        |  11 +
 setup.c                             |   2 +-
 strbuf.c                            |  10 +-
 t/t0001-init.sh                     |   6 +-
 t/t0301-credential-cache.sh         |   3 +-
 t/t0600-reffiles-backend.sh         |   2 +-
 t/t1006-cat-file.sh                 |  24 +-
 t/t1305-config-include.sh           |   4 +-
 t/t6423-merge-rename-directories.sh |   9 +-
 t/t7800-difftool.sh                 |   8 +-
 t/t9700/test.pl                     |   9 +-
 19 files changed, 585 insertions(+), 199 deletions(-)

Re: [PATCH 00/18] Support symbolic links on Windows

[Johannes Sixt]

Am 17.12.25 um 15:08 schrieb Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget:
> This finally upstreams Git for Windows' support for Windows' branch of
> symbolic links, which has been maturing since 2015. It is based off of
> js/prep-symlink-windows.
> 
> Bill Zissimopoulos (1):
>   mingw: compute the correct size for symlinks in `mingw_lstat()`
> 
> Johannes Schindelin (3):
>   mingw: try to create symlinks without elevated permissions
>   mingw: emulate `stat()` a little more faithfully
>   mingw: special-case index entries for symlinks with buggy size
> 
> Karsten Blees (14):
>   mingw: don't call `GetFileAttributes()` twice in `mingw_lstat()`
>   mingw: implement `stat()` with symlink support
>   mingw: drop the separate `do_lstat()` function
>   mingw: let `mingw_lstat()` error early upon problems with reparse
>     points
>   mingw: teach dirent about symlinks
>   mingw: factor out the retry logic
>   mingw: change default of `core.symlinks` to false
>   mingw: add symlink-specific error codes
>   mingw: handle symlinks to directories in `mingw_unlink()`
>   mingw: support renaming symlinks
>   mingw: allow `mingw_chdir()` to change to symlink-resolved directories
>   mingw: implement `readlink()`
>   mingw: implement basic `symlink()` functionality (file symlinks only)
>   mingw: add support for symlinks to directories
> 
>  compat/mingw-posix.h  |   6 +-
>  compat/mingw.c        | 635 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
>  compat/win32.h        |   6 +-
>  compat/win32/dirent.c |   5 +-
>  read-cache.c          |  11 +
>  5 files changed, 507 insertions(+), 156 deletions(-)
> 
> 
> base-commit: 6f6fe02f5fe587ec9788f8a5a34281949d7b2ca1
> Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2018%2Fdscho%2Fsymlinks-next-v1
> Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2018/dscho/symlinks-next-v1
> Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2018

I've reviewed this series and had a few comments on some of them.

All others look good, with one caveat though: symbolic links on Windows
aren't exactly an itch of mine, and I'm unfamiliar with the
corresponding API. That said, I didn't spot anything unusual at a
superficial level.

I notice that Karsten's emails bounce. Would it be appropriate to
redirect authorship and sign-off to the other email that is registered
in .mailmap?

-- Hannes

Re: [PATCH 00/18] Support symbolic links on Windows

[Karsten Blees]

Am 18.12.2025 um 19:51 schrieb Johannes Sixt:
> I notice that Karsten's emails bounce. Would it be appropriate to
> redirect authorship and sign-off to the other email that is registered
> in .mailmap?
>
> -- Hannes

Hi,

indeed, the @dcon.de address that I used to sign my patches no longer 
works, as I'm no longer working for that company. Feel free to change to 
my current address.

Cheers,

Karsten

[PATCH v2 00/18] Support symbolic links on Windows

[Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget]

This finally upstreams Git for Windows' support for Windows' branch of
symbolic links, which has been maturing since 2015. It is based off of
js/prep-symlink-windows.

Changes since v1:

 * Changed Karsten's email address to the current one.
 * The changes to do_lstat() are now reflected by the comment preceding that
   function.
 * The commit message mentioning some ELOOP logic when symlink support is
   disabled, which had no corresponding part in the commit's diff, was
   adjusted to no longer mention that long gone change.
 * Fixed the typo "woutl".
 * Dropped a misleading, stale comment about ENOSYS in the readlink()
   implementation (talking about a long-dropped part of the original patch).

Bill Zissimopoulos (1):
  mingw: compute the correct size for symlinks in `mingw_lstat()`

Johannes Schindelin (3):
  mingw: try to create symlinks without elevated permissions
  mingw: emulate `stat()` a little more faithfully
  mingw: special-case index entries for symlinks with buggy size

Karsten Blees (14):
  mingw: don't call `GetFileAttributes()` twice in `mingw_lstat()`
  mingw: implement `stat()` with symlink support
  mingw: drop the separate `do_lstat()` function
  mingw: let `mingw_lstat()` error early upon problems with reparse
    points
  mingw: teach dirent about symlinks
  mingw: factor out the retry logic
  mingw: change default of `core.symlinks` to false
  mingw: add symlink-specific error codes
  mingw: handle symlinks to directories in `mingw_unlink()`
  mingw: support renaming symlinks
  mingw: allow `mingw_chdir()` to change to symlink-resolved directories
  mingw: implement `readlink()`
  mingw: implement basic `symlink()` functionality (file symlinks only)
  mingw: add support for symlinks to directories

 compat/mingw-posix.h  |   6 +-
 compat/mingw.c        | 635 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
 compat/win32.h        |   6 +-
 compat/win32/dirent.c |   5 +-
 read-cache.c          |  11 +
 5 files changed, 507 insertions(+), 156 deletions(-)


base-commit: 1887b3dd06823575e37ad19b5827d467e126c6ed
Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2018%2Fdscho%2Fsymlinks-next-v2
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2018/dscho/symlinks-next-v2
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2018

Range-diff vs v1:

  1:  dae450dd0e !  1:  6ec4ff7457 mingw: don't call `GetFileAttributes()` twice in `mingw_lstat()`
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: don't call `GetFileAttributes()` twice in `mingw_lstat()`
     @@ Commit message
          free, and also have a (wide char) buffer that can be modified. This
          makes it easy to avoid that extraneous Win32 API call.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
     +@@ compat/mingw.c: static int has_valid_directory_prefix(wchar_t *wfilename)
     + }
     + 
     + /* We keep the do_lstat code in a separate function to avoid recursion.
     +- * When a path ends with a slash, the stat will fail with ENOENT. In
     +- * this case, we strip the trailing slashes and stat again.
     ++ * When a path ends with a slash, the call to `GetFileAttributedExW()`
     ++ * would fail. To prevent this, we strip any trailing slashes before that
     ++ * call.
     +  *
     +  * If follow is true then act like stat() and report on the link
     +  * target. Otherwise report on the link itself.
      @@ compat/mingw.c: static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
       {
       	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
  2:  c36848eda7 !  2:  5d83a8ab76 mingw: implement `stat()` with symlink support
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: implement `stat()` with symlink support
     @@ Commit message
          permissions, and then calling `GetFileInformationByHandle()` on it. This
          way, all links are resolved by the Windows file system layer.
      
     -    If symlinks are disabled, use `mingw_lstat()` as before, but fail with
     -    `ELOOP` if a symlink would have to be resolved.
     -
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
  3:  aa0ca80bbb !  3:  d3953f1826 mingw: drop the separate `do_lstat()` function
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: drop the separate `do_lstat()` function
     @@ Commit message
          the extra function and the old `mingw_stat()`-specific (`follow == 1`)
          logic.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
     @@ compat/mingw.c: static int has_valid_directory_prefix(wchar_t *wfilename)
       }
       
      -/* We keep the do_lstat code in a separate function to avoid recursion.
     -- * When a path ends with a slash, the stat will fail with ENOENT. In
     -- * this case, we strip the trailing slashes and stat again.
     +- * When a path ends with a slash, the call to `GetFileAttributedExW()`
     +- * would fail. To prevent this, we strip any trailing slashes before that
     +- * call.
      - *
      - * If follow is true then act like stat() and report on the link
      - * target. Otherwise report on the link itself.
  4:  886044373b !  4:  a6355789c3 mingw: let `mingw_lstat()` error early upon problems with reparse points
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: let `mingw_lstat()` error early upon problems with reparse points
     @@ Commit message
          `--color-moved -w`. That code was _not_ moved because a subsequent
          commit will move it to an altogether different function, anyway.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
  5:  db1d156aa0 !  5:  8b7f5a8fc7 mingw: teach dirent about symlinks
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: teach dirent about symlinks
     @@ Commit message
      
          Implement `DT_LNK` detection in dirent.c's `readdir()` function.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
  6:  4c49a3d9bf =  6:  1159e86dc4 mingw: compute the correct size for symlinks in `mingw_lstat()`
  7:  ad74d540f2 !  7:  4aeccd6656 mingw: factor out the retry logic
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: factor out the retry logic
     @@ Commit message
      
          In `mingw_rmdir()`, we include special error handling in the retry loop.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
  8:  25313cea76 !  8:  86c0742748 mingw: change default of `core.symlinks` to false
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: change default of `core.symlinks` to false
     @@ Commit message
          is true for the time being (an experiment to switch to BusyBox-w32
          failed due to the experimental nature of BusyBox-w32).
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
  9:  b698f4a002 !  9:  9a0093d34b mingw: add symlink-specific error codes
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: add symlink-specific error codes
     @@ Commit message
          Let's handle a couple of symlink-related error codes that will become
          relevant with the upcoming support for symlinks on Windows.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
 10:  282aba42e8 ! 10:  5dc90f9785 mingw: handle symlinks to directories in `mingw_unlink()`
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: handle symlinks to directories in `mingw_unlink()`
      
          The `_wunlink()` and `DeleteFileW()` functions refuse to delete symlinks
     -    to directories on Windows; The error code woutl be `ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED`
     +    to directories on Windows; The error code would be `ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED`
          in that case. Take that error code as an indicator that we need to try
          `_wrmdir()` as well. In the best case, it will remove a symlink. In the
          worst case, it will fail with the same error code again.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
 11:  5cb3b10500 ! 11:  3670a0a181 mingw: support renaming symlinks
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: support renaming symlinks
     @@ Commit message
          Avoid the `_wrename()` call, and go with directly calling
          `MoveFileEx()`, with proper error handling of course.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
 12:  49920839bb ! 12:  f79cf31dab mingw: allow `mingw_chdir()` to change to symlink-resolved directories
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: allow `mingw_chdir()` to change to symlink-resolved directories
     @@ Commit message
          Windows is limited to only MAX_PATH (260) characters. Therefore using
          symlinks and long paths in combination may be problematic.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
 13:  8fef8220f4 ! 13:  1ae9c63a89 mingw: implement `readlink()`
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: implement `readlink()`
     @@ Commit message
          Implement `readlink()` by reading NTFS reparse points via the
          `read_reparse_point()` function that was introduced earlier to determine
          the length of symlink targets. Works for symlinks and directory
     -    junctions. If symlinks are disabled, fail with `ENOSYS`.
     +    junctions.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw-posix.h ##
 14:  1dd5f9d6cd ! 14:  4e0ac43ef6 mingw: implement basic `symlink()` functionality (file symlinks only)
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: implement basic `symlink()` functionality (file symlinks only)
     @@ Commit message
          This implementation fails with `ENOSYS` if symlinks are disabled or
          unsupported.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw-posix.h ##
 15:  7b6dbc73f7 ! 15:  3d479fd47e mingw: add support for symlinks to directories
     @@
       ## Metadata ##
     -Author: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +Author: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
      
       ## Commit message ##
          mingw: add support for symlinks to directories
     @@ Commit message
          to directory or vice versa, or if the target directory is created in
          another process. It's the best Git can do, though.
      
     -    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
     +    Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
          Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
      
       ## compat/mingw.c ##
 16:  d3b89c29b0 = 16:  fb6aa461da mingw: try to create symlinks without elevated permissions
 17:  2e73ab4221 = 17:  40c3f7f36e mingw: emulate `stat()` a little more faithfully
 18:  817f488523 = 18:  afcf2bbfcb mingw: special-case index entries for symlinks with buggy size

-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 01/18] mingw: don't call `GetFileAttributes()` twice in `mingw_lstat()`

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

The Win32 API function `GetFileAttributes()` cannot handle paths with
trailing dir separators. The current `mingw_stat()`/`mingw_lstat()`
implementation calls `GetFileAttributes()` twice if the path has
trailing slashes (first with the original path that was passed as
function parameter, and and a second time with a path copy with trailing
'/' removed).

With the conversion to wide Unicode, we get the length of the path for
free, and also have a (wide char) buffer that can be modified. This
makes it easy to avoid that extraneous Win32 API call.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 53 ++++++++++++++------------------------------------
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 38 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index cf4f3c92e7..ae6826948e 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -918,8 +918,9 @@ static int has_valid_directory_prefix(wchar_t *wfilename)
 }
 
 /* We keep the do_lstat code in a separate function to avoid recursion.
- * When a path ends with a slash, the stat will fail with ENOENT. In
- * this case, we strip the trailing slashes and stat again.
+ * When a path ends with a slash, the call to `GetFileAttributedExW()`
+ * would fail. To prevent this, we strip any trailing slashes before that
+ * call.
  *
  * If follow is true then act like stat() and report on the link
  * target. Otherwise report on the link itself.
@@ -928,9 +929,18 @@ static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
 	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH];
-	if (xutftowcs_path(wfilename, file_name) < 0)
+	int wlen = xutftowcs_path(wfilename, file_name);
+	if (wlen < 0)
 		return -1;
 
+	/* strip trailing '/', or GetFileAttributes will fail */
+	while (wlen && is_dir_sep(wfilename[wlen - 1]))
+		wfilename[--wlen] = 0;
+	if (!wlen) {
+		errno = ENOENT;
+		return -1;
+	}
+
 	if (GetFileAttributesExW(wfilename, GetFileExInfoStandard, &fdata)) {
 		buf->st_ino = 0;
 		buf->st_gid = 0;
@@ -990,39 +1000,6 @@ static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 	return -1;
 }
 
-/* We provide our own lstat/fstat functions, since the provided
- * lstat/fstat functions are so slow. These stat functions are
- * tailored for Git's usage (read: fast), and are not meant to be
- * complete. Note that Git stat()s are redirected to mingw_lstat()
- * too, since Windows doesn't really handle symlinks that well.
- */
-static int do_stat_internal(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
-{
-	size_t namelen;
-	char alt_name[PATH_MAX];
-
-	if (!do_lstat(follow, file_name, buf))
-		return 0;
-
-	/* if file_name ended in a '/', Windows returned ENOENT;
-	 * try again without trailing slashes
-	 */
-	if (errno != ENOENT)
-		return -1;
-
-	namelen = strlen(file_name);
-	if (namelen && file_name[namelen-1] != '/')
-		return -1;
-	while (namelen && file_name[namelen-1] == '/')
-		--namelen;
-	if (!namelen || namelen >= PATH_MAX)
-		return -1;
-
-	memcpy(alt_name, file_name, namelen);
-	alt_name[namelen] = 0;
-	return do_lstat(follow, alt_name, buf);
-}
-
 static int get_file_info_by_handle(HANDLE hnd, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION fdata;
@@ -1048,11 +1025,11 @@ static int get_file_info_by_handle(HANDLE hnd, struct stat *buf)
 
 int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
-	return do_stat_internal(0, file_name, buf);
+	return do_lstat(0, file_name, buf);
 }
 int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
-	return do_stat_internal(1, file_name, buf);
+	return do_lstat(1, file_name, buf);
 }
 
 int mingw_fstat(int fd, struct stat *buf)
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 02/18] mingw: implement `stat()` with symlink support

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

With respect to symlinks, the current `mingw_stat()` implementation is
almost identical to `mingw_lstat()`: except for the file type (`st_mode
& S_IFMT`), it returns information about the link rather than the target.

Implement `mingw_stat()` by opening the file handle requesting minimal
permissions, and then calling `GetFileInformationByHandle()` on it. This
way, all links are resolved by the Windows file system layer.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 19 ++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index ae6826948e..13970ae729 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -1027,9 +1027,26 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	return do_lstat(0, file_name, buf);
 }
+
 int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
-	return do_lstat(1, file_name, buf);
+	wchar_t wfile_name[MAX_PATH];
+	HANDLE hnd;
+	int result;
+
+	/* open the file and let Windows resolve the links */
+	if (xutftowcs_path(wfile_name, file_name) < 0)
+		return -1;
+	hnd = CreateFileW(wfile_name, 0,
+			FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
+			OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
+	if (hnd == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		return -1;
+	}
+	result = get_file_info_by_handle(hnd, buf);
+	CloseHandle(hnd);
+	return result;
 }
 
 int mingw_fstat(int fd, struct stat *buf)
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 03/18] mingw: drop the separate `do_lstat()` function

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

With the new `mingw_stat()` implementation, `do_lstat()` is only called
from `mingw_lstat()` (with the function parameter `follow == 0`). Remove
the extra function and the old `mingw_stat()`-specific (`follow == 1`)
logic.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 23 ++---------------------
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 13970ae729..ec6c2801d3 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -917,15 +917,7 @@ static int has_valid_directory_prefix(wchar_t *wfilename)
 	return 1;
 }
 
-/* We keep the do_lstat code in a separate function to avoid recursion.
- * When a path ends with a slash, the call to `GetFileAttributedExW()`
- * would fail. To prevent this, we strip any trailing slashes before that
- * call.
- *
- * If follow is true then act like stat() and report on the link
- * target. Otherwise report on the link itself.
- */
-static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
+int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
 	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH];
@@ -959,13 +951,7 @@ static int do_lstat(int follow, const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 			if (handle != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
 				if ((findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) &&
 						(findbuf.dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)) {
-					if (follow) {
-						char buffer[MAXIMUM_REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER_SIZE];
-						buf->st_size = readlink(file_name, buffer, MAXIMUM_REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER_SIZE);
-					} else {
-						buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK;
-					}
-					buf->st_mode |= S_IREAD;
+					buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK | S_IREAD;
 					if (!(findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
 						buf->st_mode |= S_IWRITE;
 				}
@@ -1023,11 +1009,6 @@ static int get_file_info_by_handle(HANDLE hnd, struct stat *buf)
 	return 0;
 }
 
-int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
-{
-	return do_lstat(0, file_name, buf);
-}
-
 int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	wchar_t wfile_name[MAX_PATH];
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 04/18] mingw: let `mingw_lstat()` error early upon problems with reparse points

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

When obtaining lstat information for reparse points, we need to call
`FindFirstFile()` in addition to `GetFileInformationEx()` to obtain
the type of the reparse point (symlink, mount point etc.). However,
currently there is no error handling whatsoever if `FindFirstFile()`
fails.

Call `FindFirstFile()` before modifying the `stat *buf` output parameter
and error out if the call fails.

Note: The `FindFirstFile()` return value includes all the data
that we get from `GetFileAttributesEx()`, so we could replace
`GetFileAttributesEx()` with `FindFirstFile()`. We don't do that because
`GetFileAttributesEx()` is about twice as fast for single files. I.e.
we only pay the extra cost of calling `FindFirstFile()` in the rare case
that we encounter a reparse point.

Please also note that the indentation the remaining reparse point
code changed, and hence the best way to look at this diff is with
`--color-moved -w`. That code was _not_ moved because a subsequent
commit will move it to an altogether different function, anyway.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 24 ++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index ec6c2801d3..23a926c7d1 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -920,6 +920,7 @@ static int has_valid_directory_prefix(wchar_t *wfilename)
 int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
+	WIN32_FIND_DATAW findbuf = { 0 };
 	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH];
 	int wlen = xutftowcs_path(wfilename, file_name);
 	if (wlen < 0)
@@ -934,6 +935,13 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 	}
 
 	if (GetFileAttributesExW(wfilename, GetFileExInfoStandard, &fdata)) {
+		/* for reparse points, use FindFirstFile to get the reparse tag */
+		if (fdata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) {
+			HANDLE handle = FindFirstFileW(wfilename, &findbuf);
+			if (handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
+				goto error;
+			FindClose(handle);
+		}
 		buf->st_ino = 0;
 		buf->st_gid = 0;
 		buf->st_uid = 0;
@@ -946,20 +954,16 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftLastWriteTime), &(buf->st_mtim));
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftCreationTime), &(buf->st_ctim));
 		if (fdata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) {
-			WIN32_FIND_DATAW findbuf;
-			HANDLE handle = FindFirstFileW(wfilename, &findbuf);
-			if (handle != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
-				if ((findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) &&
-						(findbuf.dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)) {
-					buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK | S_IREAD;
-					if (!(findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
-						buf->st_mode |= S_IWRITE;
-				}
-				FindClose(handle);
+			if ((findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) &&
+					(findbuf.dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)) {
+				buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK | S_IREAD;
+				if (!(findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
+					buf->st_mode |= S_IWRITE;
 			}
 		}
 		return 0;
 	}
+error:
 	switch (GetLastError()) {
 	case ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED:
 	case ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION:
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 05/18] mingw: teach dirent about symlinks

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

Move the `S_IFLNK` detection to `file_attr_to_st_mode()`.

Implement `DT_LNK` detection in dirent.c's `readdir()` function.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c        | 13 +++----------
 compat/win32.h        |  6 ++++--
 compat/win32/dirent.c |  5 ++++-
 3 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 23a926c7d1..a3a48db581 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -946,21 +946,14 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 		buf->st_gid = 0;
 		buf->st_uid = 0;
 		buf->st_nlink = 1;
-		buf->st_mode = file_attr_to_st_mode(fdata.dwFileAttributes);
+		buf->st_mode = file_attr_to_st_mode(fdata.dwFileAttributes,
+				findbuf.dwReserved0);
 		buf->st_size = fdata.nFileSizeLow |
 			(((off_t)fdata.nFileSizeHigh)<<32);
 		buf->st_dev = buf->st_rdev = 0; /* not used by Git */
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftLastAccessTime), &(buf->st_atim));
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftLastWriteTime), &(buf->st_mtim));
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftCreationTime), &(buf->st_ctim));
-		if (fdata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) {
-			if ((findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) &&
-					(findbuf.dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)) {
-				buf->st_mode = S_IFLNK | S_IREAD;
-				if (!(findbuf.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
-					buf->st_mode |= S_IWRITE;
-			}
-		}
 		return 0;
 	}
 error:
@@ -1003,7 +996,7 @@ static int get_file_info_by_handle(HANDLE hnd, struct stat *buf)
 	buf->st_gid = 0;
 	buf->st_uid = 0;
 	buf->st_nlink = 1;
-	buf->st_mode = file_attr_to_st_mode(fdata.dwFileAttributes);
+	buf->st_mode = file_attr_to_st_mode(fdata.dwFileAttributes, 0);
 	buf->st_size = fdata.nFileSizeLow |
 		(((off_t)fdata.nFileSizeHigh)<<32);
 	buf->st_dev = buf->st_rdev = 0; /* not used by Git */
diff --git a/compat/win32.h b/compat/win32.h
index a97e880757..671bcc81f9 100644
--- a/compat/win32.h
+++ b/compat/win32.h
@@ -6,10 +6,12 @@
 #include <windows.h>
 #endif
 
-static inline int file_attr_to_st_mode (DWORD attr)
+static inline int file_attr_to_st_mode (DWORD attr, DWORD tag)
 {
 	int fMode = S_IREAD;
-	if (attr & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
+	if ((attr & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) && tag == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)
+		fMode |= S_IFLNK;
+	else if (attr & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
 		fMode |= S_IFDIR;
 	else
 		fMode |= S_IFREG;
diff --git a/compat/win32/dirent.c b/compat/win32/dirent.c
index 52420ec7d4..24ee9b814d 100644
--- a/compat/win32/dirent.c
+++ b/compat/win32/dirent.c
@@ -12,7 +12,10 @@ static inline void finddata2dirent(struct dirent *ent, WIN32_FIND_DATAW *fdata)
 	xwcstoutf(ent->d_name, fdata->cFileName, sizeof(ent->d_name));
 
 	/* Set file type, based on WIN32_FIND_DATA */
-	if (fdata->dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
+	if ((fdata->dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT)
+			&& fdata->dwReserved0 == IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK)
+		ent->d_type = DT_LNK;
+	else if (fdata->dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
 		ent->d_type = DT_DIR;
 	else
 		ent->d_type = DT_REG;
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 06/18] mingw: compute the correct size for symlinks in `mingw_lstat()`

[Bill Zissimopoulos via GitGitGadget]

From: Bill Zissimopoulos <billziss@navimatics.com>

POSIX specifies that upon successful return from `lstat()`: "the
value of the st_size member shall be set to the length of the pathname
contained in the symbolic link not including any terminating null byte".

Git typically doesn't trust the `stat.st_size` member of symlinks (e.g.
see `strbuf_readlink()`). Therefore, it is tempting to save on the extra
overhead of opening and reading the reparse point merely to calculate
the exact size of the link target.

This is, in fact, what Git for Windows did, from May 2015 to May 2020.
At least almost: some functions take shortcuts if `st_size` is 0 (e.g.
`diff_populate_filespec()`), hence Git for Windows hard-coded the length
of all symlinks to MAX_PATH.

This did cause problems, though, specifically in Git repositories
that were also accessed by Git for Cygwin or Git for WSL. For example,
doing `git reset --hard` using Git for Windows would update the size of
symlinks in the index to be MAX_PATH; at a later time Git for Cygwin
or Git for WSL would find that symlinks have changed size during `git
status` and update the index. And then Git for Windows would think that
the index needs to be updated. Even if the symlinks did not, in fact,
change. To avoid that, the correct size must be determined.

Signed-off-by: Bill Zissimopoulos <billziss@navimatics.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 114 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 104 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index a3a48db581..c7571951dc 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 #define SECURITY_WIN32
 #include <sspi.h>
 #include <wchar.h>
+#include <winioctl.h>
 #include <winternl.h>
 
 #define STATUS_DELETE_PENDING ((NTSTATUS) 0xC0000056)
@@ -917,10 +918,102 @@ static int has_valid_directory_prefix(wchar_t *wfilename)
 	return 1;
 }
 
+#ifndef _WINNT_H
+/*
+ * The REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER structure is defined in the Windows DDK (in
+ * ntifs.h) and in MSYS1's winnt.h (which defines _WINNT_H). So define
+ * it ourselves if we are on MSYS2 (whose winnt.h defines _WINNT_).
+ */
+typedef struct _REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER {
+	DWORD  ReparseTag;
+	WORD   ReparseDataLength;
+	WORD   Reserved;
+#ifndef _MSC_VER
+	_ANONYMOUS_UNION
+#endif
+	union {
+		struct {
+			WORD   SubstituteNameOffset;
+			WORD   SubstituteNameLength;
+			WORD   PrintNameOffset;
+			WORD   PrintNameLength;
+			ULONG  Flags;
+			WCHAR PathBuffer[1];
+		} SymbolicLinkReparseBuffer;
+		struct {
+			WORD   SubstituteNameOffset;
+			WORD   SubstituteNameLength;
+			WORD   PrintNameOffset;
+			WORD   PrintNameLength;
+			WCHAR PathBuffer[1];
+		} MountPointReparseBuffer;
+		struct {
+			BYTE   DataBuffer[1];
+		} GenericReparseBuffer;
+	} DUMMYUNIONNAME;
+} REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER, *PREPARSE_DATA_BUFFER;
+#endif
+
+static int read_reparse_point(const WCHAR *wpath, BOOL fail_on_unknown_tag,
+			      char *tmpbuf, int *plen, DWORD *ptag)
+{
+	HANDLE handle;
+	WCHAR *wbuf;
+	REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER *b = alloca(MAXIMUM_REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER_SIZE);
+	DWORD dummy;
+
+	/* read reparse point data */
+	handle = CreateFileW(wpath, 0,
+			FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
+			OPEN_EXISTING,
+			FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS | FILE_FLAG_OPEN_REPARSE_POINT, NULL);
+	if (handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		return -1;
+	}
+	if (!DeviceIoControl(handle, FSCTL_GET_REPARSE_POINT, NULL, 0, b,
+			MAXIMUM_REPARSE_DATA_BUFFER_SIZE, &dummy, NULL)) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		CloseHandle(handle);
+		return -1;
+	}
+	CloseHandle(handle);
+
+	/* get target path for symlinks or mount points (aka 'junctions') */
+	switch ((*ptag = b->ReparseTag)) {
+	case IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK:
+		wbuf = (WCHAR*) (((char*) b->SymbolicLinkReparseBuffer.PathBuffer)
+				+ b->SymbolicLinkReparseBuffer.SubstituteNameOffset);
+		*(WCHAR*) (((char*) wbuf)
+				+ b->SymbolicLinkReparseBuffer.SubstituteNameLength) = 0;
+		break;
+	case IO_REPARSE_TAG_MOUNT_POINT:
+		wbuf = (WCHAR*) (((char*) b->MountPointReparseBuffer.PathBuffer)
+				+ b->MountPointReparseBuffer.SubstituteNameOffset);
+		*(WCHAR*) (((char*) wbuf)
+				+ b->MountPointReparseBuffer.SubstituteNameLength) = 0;
+		break;
+	default:
+		if (fail_on_unknown_tag) {
+			errno = EINVAL;
+			return -1;
+		} else {
+			*plen = MAX_PATH;
+			return 0;
+		}
+	}
+
+	if ((*plen =
+	     xwcstoutf(tmpbuf, normalize_ntpath(wbuf), MAX_PATH)) <  0)
+		return -1;
+	return 0;
+}
+
 int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 {
 	WIN32_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DATA fdata;
-	WIN32_FIND_DATAW findbuf = { 0 };
+	DWORD reparse_tag = 0;
+	int link_len = 0;
 	wchar_t wfilename[MAX_PATH];
 	int wlen = xutftowcs_path(wfilename, file_name);
 	if (wlen < 0)
@@ -935,28 +1028,29 @@ int mingw_lstat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 	}
 
 	if (GetFileAttributesExW(wfilename, GetFileExInfoStandard, &fdata)) {
-		/* for reparse points, use FindFirstFile to get the reparse tag */
+		/* for reparse points, get the link tag and length */
 		if (fdata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT) {
-			HANDLE handle = FindFirstFileW(wfilename, &findbuf);
-			if (handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
-				goto error;
-			FindClose(handle);
+			char tmpbuf[MAX_PATH];
+
+			if (read_reparse_point(wfilename, FALSE, tmpbuf,
+					       &link_len, &reparse_tag) < 0)
+				return -1;
 		}
 		buf->st_ino = 0;
 		buf->st_gid = 0;
 		buf->st_uid = 0;
 		buf->st_nlink = 1;
 		buf->st_mode = file_attr_to_st_mode(fdata.dwFileAttributes,
-				findbuf.dwReserved0);
-		buf->st_size = fdata.nFileSizeLow |
-			(((off_t)fdata.nFileSizeHigh)<<32);
+				reparse_tag);
+		buf->st_size = S_ISLNK(buf->st_mode) ? link_len :
+			fdata.nFileSizeLow | (((off_t) fdata.nFileSizeHigh) << 32);
 		buf->st_dev = buf->st_rdev = 0; /* not used by Git */
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftLastAccessTime), &(buf->st_atim));
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftLastWriteTime), &(buf->st_mtim));
 		filetime_to_timespec(&(fdata.ftCreationTime), &(buf->st_ctim));
 		return 0;
 	}
-error:
+
 	switch (GetLastError()) {
 	case ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED:
 	case ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION:
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 07/18] mingw: factor out the retry logic

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

In several places, Git's Windows-specific code follows the pattern where
it tries to perform an operation, and retries several times when that
operation fails, sleeping an increasing amount of time, before finally
giving up and asking the user whether to rety (after, say, closing an
editor that held a handle to a file, preventing the operation from
succeeding).

This logic is a bit hard to use, and inconsistent:
`mingw_unlink()` and `mingw_rmdir()` duplicate the code to retry,
and both of them do so incompletely. They also do not restore `errno` if the
user answers 'no'.

Introduce a `retry_ask_yes_no()` helper function that handles retry with
small delay, asking the user, and restoring `errno`.

Note that in `mingw_unlink()`, we include the `_wchmod()` call in the
retry loop (which may fail if the file is locked exclusively).

In `mingw_rmdir()`, we include special error handling in the retry loop.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 104 ++++++++++++++++++++++---------------------------
 1 file changed, 46 insertions(+), 58 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index c7571951dc..26e64c6a5a 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -28,8 +28,6 @@
 
 #define HCAST(type, handle) ((type)(intptr_t)handle)
 
-static const int delay[] = { 0, 1, 10, 20, 40 };
-
 void open_in_gdb(void)
 {
 	static struct child_process cp = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
@@ -205,15 +203,12 @@ static int read_yes_no_answer(void)
 	return -1;
 }
 
-static int ask_yes_no_if_possible(const char *format, ...)
+static int ask_yes_no_if_possible(const char *format, va_list args)
 {
 	char question[4096];
 	const char *retry_hook;
-	va_list args;
 
-	va_start(args, format);
 	vsnprintf(question, sizeof(question), format, args);
-	va_end(args);
 
 	retry_hook = mingw_getenv("GIT_ASK_YESNO");
 	if (retry_hook) {
@@ -238,6 +233,31 @@ static int ask_yes_no_if_possible(const char *format, ...)
 	}
 }
 
+static int retry_ask_yes_no(int *tries, const char *format, ...)
+{
+	static const int delay[] = { 0, 1, 10, 20, 40 };
+	va_list args;
+	int result, saved_errno = errno;
+
+	if ((*tries) < ARRAY_SIZE(delay)) {
+		/*
+		 * We assume that some other process had the file open at the wrong
+		 * moment and retry. In order to give the other process a higher
+		 * chance to complete its operation, we give up our time slice now.
+		 * If we have to retry again, we do sleep a bit.
+		 */
+		Sleep(delay[*tries]);
+		(*tries)++;
+		return 1;
+	}
+
+	va_start(args, format);
+	result = ask_yes_no_if_possible(format, args);
+	va_end(args);
+	errno = saved_errno;
+	return result;
+}
+
 /* Windows only */
 enum hide_dotfiles_type {
 	HIDE_DOTFILES_FALSE = 0,
@@ -298,7 +318,7 @@ static wchar_t *normalize_ntpath(wchar_t *wbuf)
 
 int mingw_unlink(const char *pathname, int handle_in_use_error)
 {
-	int ret, tries = 0;
+	int tries = 0;
 	wchar_t wpathname[MAX_PATH];
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wpathname, pathname) < 0)
 		return -1;
@@ -306,29 +326,19 @@ int mingw_unlink(const char *pathname, int handle_in_use_error)
 	if (DeleteFileW(wpathname))
 		return 0;
 
-	/* read-only files cannot be removed */
-	_wchmod(wpathname, 0666);
-	while ((ret = _wunlink(wpathname)) == -1 && tries < ARRAY_SIZE(delay)) {
+	do {
+		/* read-only files cannot be removed */
+		_wchmod(wpathname, 0666);
+		if (!_wunlink(wpathname))
+			return 0;
 		if (!is_file_in_use_error(GetLastError()))
 			break;
 		if (!handle_in_use_error)
-			return ret;
+			return -1;
 
-		/*
-		 * We assume that some other process had the source or
-		 * destination file open at the wrong moment and retry.
-		 * In order to give the other process a higher chance to
-		 * complete its operation, we give up our time slice now.
-		 * If we have to retry again, we do sleep a bit.
-		 */
-		Sleep(delay[tries]);
-		tries++;
-	}
-	while (ret == -1 && is_file_in_use_error(GetLastError()) &&
-	       ask_yes_no_if_possible("Unlink of file '%s' failed. "
-			"Should I try again?", pathname))
-	       ret = _wunlink(wpathname);
-	return ret;
+	} while (retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Unlink of file '%s' failed. "
+			"Should I try again?", pathname));
+	return -1;
 }
 
 static int is_dir_empty(const wchar_t *wpath)
@@ -355,7 +365,7 @@ static int is_dir_empty(const wchar_t *wpath)
 
 int mingw_rmdir(const char *pathname)
 {
-	int ret, tries = 0;
+	int tries = 0;
 	wchar_t wpathname[MAX_PATH];
 	struct stat st;
 
@@ -381,7 +391,11 @@ int mingw_rmdir(const char *pathname)
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wpathname, pathname) < 0)
 		return -1;
 
-	while ((ret = _wrmdir(wpathname)) == -1 && tries < ARRAY_SIZE(delay)) {
+	do {
+		if (!_wrmdir(wpathname)) {
+			invalidate_lstat_cache();
+			return 0;
+		}
 		if (!is_file_in_use_error(GetLastError()))
 			errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
 		if (errno != EACCES)
@@ -390,23 +404,9 @@ int mingw_rmdir(const char *pathname)
 			errno = ENOTEMPTY;
 			break;
 		}
-		/*
-		 * We assume that some other process had the source or
-		 * destination file open at the wrong moment and retry.
-		 * In order to give the other process a higher chance to
-		 * complete its operation, we give up our time slice now.
-		 * If we have to retry again, we do sleep a bit.
-		 */
-		Sleep(delay[tries]);
-		tries++;
-	}
-	while (ret == -1 && errno == EACCES && is_file_in_use_error(GetLastError()) &&
-	       ask_yes_no_if_possible("Deletion of directory '%s' failed. "
-			"Should I try again?", pathname))
-	       ret = _wrmdir(wpathname);
-	if (!ret)
-		invalidate_lstat_cache();
-	return ret;
+	} while (retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Deletion of directory '%s' failed. "
+			"Should I try again?", pathname));
+	return -1;
 }
 
 static inline int needs_hiding(const char *path)
@@ -2384,20 +2384,8 @@ repeat:
 			SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs);
 		}
 	}
-	if (tries < ARRAY_SIZE(delay) && gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED) {
-		/*
-		 * We assume that some other process had the source or
-		 * destination file open at the wrong moment and retry.
-		 * In order to give the other process a higher chance to
-		 * complete its operation, we give up our time slice now.
-		 * If we have to retry again, we do sleep a bit.
-		 */
-		Sleep(delay[tries]);
-		tries++;
-		goto repeat;
-	}
 	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
-	       ask_yes_no_if_possible("Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
+	       retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
 		       "Should I try again?", pold, pnew))
 		goto repeat;
 
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 08/18] mingw: change default of `core.symlinks` to false

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

Symlinks on Windows don't work the same way as on Unix systems. For
example, there are different types of symlinks for directories and
files, and unless using a recent-ish Windows version in Developer Mode,
creating symlinks requires administrative privileges.

By default, disable symlink support on Windows. That is, users
explicitly have to enable it with `git config [--system|--global]
core.symlinks true`; For convenience, `git init` (and `git clone`)
will perform a test whether the current setup allows creating symlinks
and will configure that setting in the repository config.

The test suite ignores system / global config files. Allow
testing *with* symlink support by checking if native symlinks are
enabled in MSYS2 (via setting the special environment variable
`MSYS=winsymlinks:nativestrict` to ask the MSYS2 runtime to enable
creating symlinks).

Note: This assumes that Git's test suite is run in MSYS2's Bash, which
is true for the time being (an experiment to switch to BusyBox-w32
failed due to the experimental nature of BusyBox-w32).

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 9 +++++++++
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 26e64c6a5a..0fe00a5b70 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -2862,6 +2862,15 @@ static void setup_windows_environment(void)
 		if (!tmp && (tmp = getenv("USERPROFILE")))
 			setenv("HOME", tmp, 1);
 	}
+
+	/*
+	 * Change 'core.symlinks' default to false, unless native symlinks are
+	 * enabled in MSys2 (via 'MSYS=winsymlinks:nativestrict'). Thus we can
+	 * run the test suite (which doesn't obey config files) with or without
+	 * symlink support.
+	 */
+	if (!(tmp = getenv("MSYS")) || !strstr(tmp, "winsymlinks:nativestrict"))
+		has_symlinks = 0;
 }
 
 static void get_current_user_sid(PSID *sid, HANDLE *linked_token)
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 09/18] mingw: add symlink-specific error codes

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

The Win32 API calls do not set `errno`; Instead, error codes for failed
operations must be obtained via the `GetLastError()` function. Git would
not know what to do with those error values, though, which is why Git's
Windows compatibility layer translates them to `errno` values.

Let's handle a couple of symlink-related error codes that will become
relevant with the upcoming support for symlinks on Windows.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 0fe00a5b70..0e8807196f 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ int err_win_to_posix(DWORD winerr)
 	case ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER: error = EINVAL; break;
 	case ERROR_INVALID_PASSWORD: error = EPERM; break;
 	case ERROR_INVALID_PRIMARY_GROUP: error = EINVAL; break;
+	case ERROR_INVALID_REPARSE_DATA: error = EINVAL; break;
 	case ERROR_INVALID_SIGNAL_NUMBER: error = EINVAL; break;
 	case ERROR_INVALID_TARGET_HANDLE: error = EIO; break;
 	case ERROR_INVALID_WORKSTATION: error = EACCES; break;
@@ -116,6 +117,7 @@ int err_win_to_posix(DWORD winerr)
 	case ERROR_NEGATIVE_SEEK: error = ESPIPE; break;
 	case ERROR_NOACCESS: error = EFAULT; break;
 	case ERROR_NONE_MAPPED: error = EINVAL; break;
+	case ERROR_NOT_A_REPARSE_POINT: error = EINVAL; break;
 	case ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY: error = ENOMEM; break;
 	case ERROR_NOT_READY: error = EAGAIN; break;
 	case ERROR_NOT_SAME_DEVICE: error = EXDEV; break;
@@ -136,6 +138,9 @@ int err_win_to_posix(DWORD winerr)
 	case ERROR_PIPE_NOT_CONNECTED: error = EPIPE; break;
 	case ERROR_PRIVILEGE_NOT_HELD: error = EACCES; break;
 	case ERROR_READ_FAULT: error = EIO; break;
+	case ERROR_REPARSE_ATTRIBUTE_CONFLICT: error = EINVAL; break;
+	case ERROR_REPARSE_TAG_INVALID: error = EINVAL; break;
+	case ERROR_REPARSE_TAG_MISMATCH: error = EINVAL; break;
 	case ERROR_SEEK: error = EIO; break;
 	case ERROR_SEEK_ON_DEVICE: error = ESPIPE; break;
 	case ERROR_SHARING_BUFFER_EXCEEDED: error = ENFILE; break;
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 10/18] mingw: handle symlinks to directories in `mingw_unlink()`

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

The `_wunlink()` and `DeleteFileW()` functions refuse to delete symlinks
to directories on Windows; The error code would be `ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED`
in that case. Take that error code as an indicator that we need to try
`_wrmdir()` as well. In the best case, it will remove a symlink. In the
worst case, it will fail with the same error code again.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 9 ++++++++-
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 0e8807196f..b1cc30d0f1 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -338,9 +338,16 @@ int mingw_unlink(const char *pathname, int handle_in_use_error)
 			return 0;
 		if (!is_file_in_use_error(GetLastError()))
 			break;
+		/*
+		 * _wunlink() / DeleteFileW() for directory symlinks fails with
+		 * ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED (EACCES), so try _wrmdir() as well. This is the
+		 * same error we get if a file is in use (already checked above).
+		 */
+		if (!_wrmdir(wpathname))
+			return 0;
+
 		if (!handle_in_use_error)
 			return -1;
-
 	} while (retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Unlink of file '%s' failed. "
 			"Should I try again?", pathname));
 	return -1;
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 11/18] mingw: support renaming symlinks

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

Older MSVCRT's `_wrename()` function cannot rename symlinks over
existing files: it returns success without doing anything. Newer
MSVCR*.dll versions probably do not share this problem: according to CRT
sources, they just call `MoveFileEx()` with the `MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED`
flag.

Avoid the `_wrename()` call, and go with directly calling
`MoveFileEx()`, with proper error handling of course.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 38 ++++++++++++++++----------------------
 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index b1cc30d0f1..55f0bb478e 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -2275,7 +2275,7 @@ int mingw_accept(int sockfd1, struct sockaddr *sa, socklen_t *sz)
 int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
 {
 	static int supports_file_rename_info_ex = 1;
-	DWORD attrs, gle;
+	DWORD attrs = INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES, gle;
 	int tries = 0;
 	wchar_t wpold[MAX_PATH], wpnew[MAX_PATH];
 	int wpnew_len;
@@ -2286,15 +2286,6 @@ int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
 	if (wpnew_len < 0)
 		return -1;
 
-	/*
-	 * Try native rename() first to get errno right.
-	 * It is based on MoveFile(), which cannot overwrite existing files.
-	 */
-	if (!_wrename(wpold, wpnew))
-		return 0;
-	if (errno != EEXIST)
-		return -1;
-
 repeat:
 	if (supports_file_rename_info_ex) {
 		/*
@@ -2370,13 +2361,22 @@ repeat:
 		 * to retry.
 		 */
 	} else {
-		if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING))
+		if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew,
+				MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING | MOVEFILE_COPY_ALLOWED))
 			return 0;
 		gle = GetLastError();
 	}
 
-	/* TODO: translate more errors */
-	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
+	/* revert file attributes on failure */
+	if (attrs != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES)
+		SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs);
+
+	if (!is_file_in_use_error(gle)) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(gle);
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	if (attrs == INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES &&
 	    (attrs = GetFileAttributesW(wpnew)) != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES) {
 		if (attrs & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) {
 			DWORD attrsold = GetFileAttributesW(wpold);
@@ -2388,16 +2388,10 @@ repeat:
 			return -1;
 		}
 		if ((attrs & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY) &&
-		    SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs & ~FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY)) {
-			if (MoveFileExW(wpold, wpnew, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING))
-				return 0;
-			gle = GetLastError();
-			/* revert file attributes on failure */
-			SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs);
-		}
+		    SetFileAttributesW(wpnew, attrs & ~FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY))
+			goto repeat;
 	}
-	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
-	       retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
+	if (retry_ask_yes_no(&tries, "Rename from '%s' to '%s' failed. "
 		       "Should I try again?", pold, pnew))
 		goto repeat;
 
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 12/18] mingw: allow `mingw_chdir()` to change to symlink-resolved directories

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

If symlinks are enabled, resolve all symlinks when changing directories,
as required by POSIX.

Note: Git's `real_path()` function bases its link resolution algorithm
on this property of `chdir()`. Unfortunately, the current directory on
Windows is limited to only MAX_PATH (260) characters. Therefore using
symlinks and long paths in combination may be problematic.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 20 +++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 55f0bb478e..5d2a8c247c 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -866,9 +866,27 @@ int mingw_access(const char *filename, int mode)
 int mingw_chdir(const char *dirname)
 {
 	wchar_t wdirname[MAX_PATH];
+
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wdirname, dirname) < 0)
 		return -1;
-	return _wchdir(wdirname);
+
+	if (has_symlinks) {
+		HANDLE hnd = CreateFileW(wdirname, 0,
+				FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
+				OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
+		if (hnd == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
+			errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+			return -1;
+		}
+		if (!GetFinalPathNameByHandleW(hnd, wdirname, ARRAY_SIZE(wdirname), 0)) {
+			errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+			CloseHandle(hnd);
+			return -1;
+		}
+		CloseHandle(hnd);
+	}
+
+	return _wchdir(normalize_ntpath(wdirname));
 }
 
 int mingw_chmod(const char *filename, int mode)
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 13/18] mingw: implement `readlink()`

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

Implement `readlink()` by reading NTFS reparse points via the
`read_reparse_point()` function that was introduced earlier to determine
the length of symlink targets. Works for symlinks and directory
junctions.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw-posix.h |  3 +--
 compat/mingw.c       | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw-posix.h b/compat/mingw-posix.h
index 0939feff27..896aa976b1 100644
--- a/compat/mingw-posix.h
+++ b/compat/mingw-posix.h
@@ -121,8 +121,6 @@ struct utsname {
  * trivial stubs
  */
 
-static inline int readlink(const char *path UNUSED, char *buf UNUSED, size_t bufsiz UNUSED)
-{ errno = ENOSYS; return -1; }
 static inline int symlink(const char *oldpath UNUSED, const char *newpath UNUSED)
 { errno = ENOSYS; return -1; }
 static inline int fchmod(int fildes UNUSED, mode_t mode UNUSED)
@@ -197,6 +195,7 @@ int setitimer(int type, struct itimerval *in, struct itimerval *out);
 int sigaction(int sig, struct sigaction *in, struct sigaction *out);
 int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);
 int uname(struct utsname *buf);
+int readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);
 
 /*
  * replacements of existing functions
diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 5d2a8c247c..b407a2ac07 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -2698,6 +2698,30 @@ int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath)
 	return 0;
 }
 
+int readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz)
+{
+	WCHAR wpath[MAX_PATH];
+	char tmpbuf[MAX_PATH];
+	int len;
+	DWORD tag;
+
+	if (xutftowcs_path(wpath, path) < 0)
+		return -1;
+
+	if (read_reparse_point(wpath, TRUE, tmpbuf, &len, &tag) < 0)
+		return -1;
+
+	/*
+	 * Adapt to strange readlink() API: Copy up to bufsiz *bytes*, potentially
+	 * cutting off a UTF-8 sequence. Insufficient bufsize is *not* a failure
+	 * condition. There is no conversion function that produces invalid UTF-8,
+	 * so convert to a (hopefully large enough) temporary buffer, then memcpy
+	 * the requested number of bytes (including '\0' for robustness).
+	 */
+	memcpy(buf, tmpbuf, min(bufsiz, len + 1));
+	return min(bufsiz, len);
+}
+
 pid_t waitpid(pid_t pid, int *status, int options)
 {
 	HANDLE h = OpenProcess(SYNCHRONIZE | PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION,
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 14/18] mingw: implement basic `symlink()` functionality (file symlinks only)

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

Implement `symlink()`. This implementation always creates _file_
symlinks (remember: Windows discerns between symlinks pointing to
directories and those pointing to files). Support for directory symlinks
will be added in a subseqeuent commit.

This implementation fails with `ENOSYS` if symlinks are disabled or
unsupported.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw-posix.h |  3 +--
 compat/mingw.c       | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw-posix.h b/compat/mingw-posix.h
index 896aa976b1..2d989fd762 100644
--- a/compat/mingw-posix.h
+++ b/compat/mingw-posix.h
@@ -121,8 +121,6 @@ struct utsname {
  * trivial stubs
  */
 
-static inline int symlink(const char *oldpath UNUSED, const char *newpath UNUSED)
-{ errno = ENOSYS; return -1; }
 static inline int fchmod(int fildes UNUSED, mode_t mode UNUSED)
 { errno = ENOSYS; return -1; }
 #ifndef __MINGW64_VERSION_MAJOR
@@ -195,6 +193,7 @@ int setitimer(int type, struct itimerval *in, struct itimerval *out);
 int sigaction(int sig, struct sigaction *in, struct sigaction *out);
 int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);
 int uname(struct utsname *buf);
+int symlink(const char *target, const char *link);
 int readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);
 
 /*
diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index b407a2ac07..8d366794c4 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -2698,6 +2698,34 @@ int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath)
 	return 0;
 }
 
+int symlink(const char *target, const char *link)
+{
+	wchar_t wtarget[MAX_PATH], wlink[MAX_PATH];
+	int len;
+
+	/* fail if symlinks are disabled or API is not supported (WinXP) */
+	if (!has_symlinks) {
+		errno = ENOSYS;
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	if ((len = xutftowcs_path(wtarget, target)) < 0
+			|| xutftowcs_path(wlink, link) < 0)
+		return -1;
+
+	/* convert target dir separators to backslashes */
+	while (len--)
+		if (wtarget[len] == '/')
+			wtarget[len] = '\\';
+
+	/* create file symlink */
+	if (!CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, 0)) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		return -1;
+	}
+	return 0;
+}
+
 int readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz)
 {
 	WCHAR wpath[MAX_PATH];
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 15/18] mingw: add support for symlinks to directories

[Karsten Blees via GitGitGadget]

From: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>

Symlinks on Windows have a flag that indicates whether the target is a
file or a directory. Symlinks of wrong type simply don't work. This even
affects core Win32 APIs (e.g. `DeleteFile()` refuses to delete directory
symlinks).

However, `CreateFile()` with FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS does work. Check
the target type by first creating a tentative file symlink, opening it,
and checking the type of the resulting handle. If it is a directory,
recreate the symlink with the directory flag set.

It is possible to create symlinks before the target exists (or in case
of symlinks to symlinks: before the target type is known). If this
happens, create a tentative file symlink and postpone the directory
decision: keep a list of phantom symlinks to be processed whenever a new
directory is created in `mingw_mkdir()`.

Limitations: This algorithm may fail if a link target changes from file
to directory or vice versa, or if the target directory is created in
another process. It's the best Git can do, though.

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <karsten.blees@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 164 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 164 insertions(+)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 8d366794c4..59a32e454e 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -296,6 +296,131 @@ int mingw_core_config(const char *var, const char *value,
 	return 0;
 }
 
+static inline int is_wdir_sep(wchar_t wchar)
+{
+	return wchar == L'/' || wchar == L'\\';
+}
+
+static const wchar_t *make_relative_to(const wchar_t *path,
+				       const wchar_t *relative_to, wchar_t *out,
+				       size_t size)
+{
+	size_t i = wcslen(relative_to), len;
+
+	/* Is `path` already absolute? */
+	if (is_wdir_sep(path[0]) ||
+	    (iswalpha(path[0]) && path[1] == L':' && is_wdir_sep(path[2])))
+		return path;
+
+	while (i > 0 && !is_wdir_sep(relative_to[i - 1]))
+		i--;
+
+	/* Is `relative_to` in the current directory? */
+	if (!i)
+		return path;
+
+	len = wcslen(path);
+	if (i + len + 1 > size) {
+		error("Could not make '%ls' relative to '%ls' (too large)",
+		      path, relative_to);
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	memcpy(out, relative_to, i * sizeof(wchar_t));
+	wcscpy(out + i, path);
+	return out;
+}
+
+enum phantom_symlink_result {
+	PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY,
+	PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE,
+	PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DIRECTORY
+};
+
+/*
+ * Changes a file symlink to a directory symlink if the target exists and is a
+ * directory.
+ */
+static enum phantom_symlink_result
+process_phantom_symlink(const wchar_t *wtarget, const wchar_t *wlink)
+{
+	HANDLE hnd;
+	BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION fdata;
+	wchar_t relative[MAX_PATH];
+	const wchar_t *rel;
+
+	/* check that wlink is still a file symlink */
+	if ((GetFileAttributesW(wlink)
+			& (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY))
+			!= FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT)
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE;
+
+	/* make it relative, if necessary */
+	rel = make_relative_to(wtarget, wlink, relative, ARRAY_SIZE(relative));
+	if (!rel)
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE;
+
+	/* let Windows resolve the link by opening it */
+	hnd = CreateFileW(rel, 0,
+			FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
+			OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
+	if (hnd == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY;
+	}
+
+	if (!GetFileInformationByHandle(hnd, &fdata)) {
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		CloseHandle(hnd);
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY;
+	}
+	CloseHandle(hnd);
+
+	/* if target exists and is a file, we're done */
+	if (!(fdata.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY))
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE;
+
+	/* otherwise recreate the symlink with directory flag */
+	if (DeleteFileW(wlink) && CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, 1))
+		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DIRECTORY;
+
+	errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+	return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY;
+}
+
+/* keep track of newly created symlinks to non-existing targets */
+struct phantom_symlink_info {
+	struct phantom_symlink_info *next;
+	wchar_t *wlink;
+	wchar_t *wtarget;
+};
+
+static struct phantom_symlink_info *phantom_symlinks = NULL;
+static CRITICAL_SECTION phantom_symlinks_cs;
+
+static void process_phantom_symlinks(void)
+{
+	struct phantom_symlink_info *current, **psi;
+	EnterCriticalSection(&phantom_symlinks_cs);
+	/* process phantom symlinks list */
+	psi = &phantom_symlinks;
+	while ((current = *psi)) {
+		enum phantom_symlink_result result = process_phantom_symlink(
+				current->wtarget, current->wlink);
+		if (result == PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY) {
+			psi = &current->next;
+		} else {
+			/* symlink was processed, remove from list */
+			*psi = current->next;
+			free(current);
+			/* if symlink was a directory, start over */
+			if (result == PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DIRECTORY)
+				psi = &phantom_symlinks;
+		}
+	}
+	LeaveCriticalSection(&phantom_symlinks_cs);
+}
+
 /* Normalizes NT paths as returned by some low-level APIs. */
 static wchar_t *normalize_ntpath(wchar_t *wbuf)
 {
@@ -479,6 +604,8 @@ int mingw_mkdir(const char *path, int mode UNUSED)
 	if (xutftowcs_path(wpath, path) < 0)
 		return -1;
 	ret = _wmkdir(wpath);
+	if (!ret)
+		process_phantom_symlinks();
 	if (!ret && needs_hiding(path))
 		return set_hidden_flag(wpath, 1);
 	return ret;
@@ -2723,6 +2850,42 @@ int symlink(const char *target, const char *link)
 		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
 		return -1;
 	}
+
+	/* convert to directory symlink if target exists */
+	switch (process_phantom_symlink(wtarget, wlink)) {
+	case PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY:	{
+		/* if target doesn't exist, add to phantom symlinks list */
+		wchar_t wfullpath[MAX_PATH];
+		struct phantom_symlink_info *psi;
+
+		/* convert to absolute path to be independent of cwd */
+		len = GetFullPathNameW(wlink, MAX_PATH, wfullpath, NULL);
+		if (!len || len >= MAX_PATH) {
+			errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+			return -1;
+		}
+
+		/* over-allocate and fill phantom_symlink_info structure */
+		psi = xmalloc(sizeof(struct phantom_symlink_info)
+			+ sizeof(wchar_t) * (len + wcslen(wtarget) + 2));
+		psi->wlink = (wchar_t *)(psi + 1);
+		wcscpy(psi->wlink, wfullpath);
+		psi->wtarget = psi->wlink + len + 1;
+		wcscpy(psi->wtarget, wtarget);
+
+		EnterCriticalSection(&phantom_symlinks_cs);
+		psi->next = phantom_symlinks;
+		phantom_symlinks = psi;
+		LeaveCriticalSection(&phantom_symlinks_cs);
+		break;
+	}
+	case PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DIRECTORY:
+		/* if we created a dir symlink, process other phantom symlinks */
+		process_phantom_symlinks();
+		break;
+	default:
+		break;
+	}
 	return 0;
 }
 
@@ -3424,6 +3587,7 @@ int wmain(int argc, const wchar_t **wargv)
 
 	/* initialize critical section for waitpid pinfo_t list */
 	InitializeCriticalSection(&pinfo_cs);
+	InitializeCriticalSection(&phantom_symlinks_cs);
 
 	/* set up default file mode and file modes for stdin/out/err */
 	_fmode = _O_BINARY;
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 16/18] mingw: try to create symlinks without elevated permissions

[Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget]

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

As of Windows 10 Build 14972 in Developer Mode, a new flag is supported
by `CreateSymbolicLink()` to create symbolic links even when running
outside of an elevated session (which was previously required).

This new flag is called `SYMBOLIC_LINK_FLAG_ALLOW_UNPRIVILEGED_CREATE`
and has the numeric value 0x02.

Previous Windows 10 versions will not understand that flag and return
an `ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER`, therefore we have to be careful to try
passing that flag only when the build number indicates that it is
supported.

For more information about the new flag, see this blog post:
https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2016/12/02/symlinks-windows-10/

Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 59a32e454e..3e2110a87a 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -331,6 +331,8 @@ static const wchar_t *make_relative_to(const wchar_t *path,
 	return out;
 }
 
+static DWORD symlink_file_flags = 0, symlink_directory_flags = 1;
+
 enum phantom_symlink_result {
 	PHANTOM_SYMLINK_RETRY,
 	PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE,
@@ -381,7 +383,8 @@ process_phantom_symlink(const wchar_t *wtarget, const wchar_t *wlink)
 		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DONE;
 
 	/* otherwise recreate the symlink with directory flag */
-	if (DeleteFileW(wlink) && CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, 1))
+	if (DeleteFileW(wlink) &&
+	    CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, symlink_directory_flags))
 		return PHANTOM_SYMLINK_DIRECTORY;
 
 	errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
@@ -2846,7 +2849,7 @@ int symlink(const char *target, const char *link)
 			wtarget[len] = '\\';
 
 	/* create file symlink */
-	if (!CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, 0)) {
+	if (!CreateSymbolicLinkW(wlink, wtarget, symlink_file_flags)) {
 		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
 		return -1;
 	}
@@ -3523,6 +3526,24 @@ static void maybe_redirect_std_handles(void)
 				  GENERIC_WRITE, FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING);
 }
 
+static void adjust_symlink_flags(void)
+{
+	/*
+	 * Starting with Windows 10 Build 14972, symbolic links can be created
+	 * using CreateSymbolicLink() without elevation by passing the flag
+	 * SYMBOLIC_LINK_FLAG_ALLOW_UNPRIVILEGED_CREATE (0x02) as last
+	 * parameter, provided the Developer Mode has been enabled. Some
+	 * earlier Windows versions complain about this flag with an
+	 * ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER, hence we have to test the build number
+	 * specifically.
+	 */
+	if (GetVersion() >= 14972 << 16) {
+		symlink_file_flags |= 2;
+		symlink_directory_flags |= 2;
+	}
+
+}
+
 #ifdef _MSC_VER
 #ifdef _DEBUG
 #include <crtdbg.h>
@@ -3558,6 +3579,7 @@ int wmain(int argc, const wchar_t **wargv)
 #endif
 
 	maybe_redirect_std_handles();
+	adjust_symlink_flags();
 
 	/* determine size of argv and environ conversion buffer */
 	maxlen = wcslen(wargv[0]);
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 17/18] mingw: emulate `stat()` a little more faithfully

[Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget]

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

When creating directories via `safe_create_leading_directories()`, we
might encounter an already-existing directory which is not
readable by the current user. To handle that situation, Git's code calls
`stat()` to determine whether we're looking at a directory.

In such a case, `CreateFile()` will fail, though, no matter what, and
consequently `mingw_stat()` will fail, too. But POSIX semantics seem to
still allow `stat()` to go forward.

So let's call `mingw_lstat()` to the rescue if we fail to get a file
handle due to denied permission in `mingw_stat()`, and fill the stat
info that way.

We need to be careful to not allow this to go forward in case that we're
looking at a symbolic link: to resolve the link, we would still have to
create a file handle, and we just found out that we cannot. Therefore,
`stat()` still needs to fail with `EACCES` in that case.

This fixes https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/2531.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 compat/mingw.c | 14 +++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 3e2110a87a..628a3941d2 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -1273,7 +1273,19 @@ int mingw_stat(const char *file_name, struct stat *buf)
 			FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE | FILE_SHARE_DELETE, NULL,
 			OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, NULL);
 	if (hnd == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
-		errno = err_win_to_posix(GetLastError());
+		DWORD err = GetLastError();
+
+		if (err == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
+		    !mingw_lstat(file_name, buf) &&
+		    !S_ISLNK(buf->st_mode))
+			/*
+			 * POSIX semantics state to still try to fill
+			 * information, even if permission is denied to create
+			 * a file handle.
+			 */
+			return 0;
+
+		errno = err_win_to_posix(err);
 		return -1;
 	}
 	result = get_file_info_by_handle(hnd, buf);
-- 
gitgitgadget

[PATCH v2 18/18] mingw: special-case index entries for symlinks with buggy size

[Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget]

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

In https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/pull/2637, we fixed a bug
where symbolic links' target path sizes were recorded incorrectly in the
index. The downside of this fix was that every user with tracked
symbolic links in their checkouts would see them as modified in `git
status`, but not in `git diff`, and only a `git add <path>` (or `git add
-u`) would "fix" this.

Let's do better than that: we can detect that situation and simply
pretend that a symbolic link with a known bad size (or a size that just
happens to be that bad size, a _very_ unlikely scenario because it would
overflow our buffers due to the trailing NUL byte) means that it needs
to be re-checked as if we had just checked it out.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
---
 read-cache.c | 11 +++++++++++
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)

diff --git a/read-cache.c b/read-cache.c
index 990d4ead0d..260f4b3b2f 100644
--- a/read-cache.c
+++ b/read-cache.c
@@ -470,6 +470,17 @@ int ie_modified(struct index_state *istate,
 	 * then we know it is.
 	 */
 	if ((changed & DATA_CHANGED) &&
+#ifdef GIT_WINDOWS_NATIVE
+	    /*
+	     * Work around Git for Windows v2.27.0 fixing a bug where symlinks'
+	     * target path lengths were not read at all, and instead recorded
+	     * as 4096: now, all symlinks would appear as modified.
+	     *
+	     * So let's just special-case symlinks with a target path length
+	     * (i.e. `sd_size`) of 4096 and force them to be re-checked.
+	     */
+	    (!S_ISLNK(st->st_mode) || ce->ce_stat_data.sd_size != MAX_PATH) &&
+#endif
 	    (S_ISGITLINK(ce->ce_mode) || ce->ce_stat_data.sd_size != 0))
 		return changed;
 
-- 
gitgitgadget