Git Submodule Symlink for Directory is created as File

[Erik1000]

Existing issues matching what you're seeing

• I was not able to find an open or closed issue matching what I'm seeing

Git for Windows version

git version 2.55.0.windows.5
cpu: x86_64
built from commit: 32c4f7689275d233577576630e1ac5b7eb354eb0
sizeof-long: 4
sizeof-size_t: 8
shell-path: D:/git-sdk-64-build-installers/usr/bin/sh
rust: disabled
feature: fsmonitor--daemon
gettext: enabled
libcurl: 8.21.0
OpenSSL: OpenSSL 3.5.7 9 Jun 2026
zlib: 1.3.2
SHA-1: SHA1_DC
SHA-256: SHA256_BLK
default-ref-format: files
default-hash: sha1

Windows version

Windows 11

Windows CPU architecture

x86_64 (64-bit)

Additional Windows version information

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26100.9106]

Options set during installation

Editor Option: VIM
Custom Editor Path: 
Default Branch Option: main
Path Option: Cmd
SSH Option: OpenSSH
Tortoise Option: false
CURL Option: WinSSL
CRLF Option: CRLFAlways
Bash Terminal Option: MinTTY
Git Pull Behavior Option: FFOnly
Use Credential Manager: Enabled
Performance Tweaks FSCache: Enabled
Enable Symlinks: Enabled
Enable FSMonitor: Disabled

Other interesting things

No response

Terminal/shell

Powershell

Commands that trigger the issue

# Create a new repo
New-Item -Type "Directory" git_symlink_repo
cd .\git_symlink_repo\
git init

# Add submodule
git submodule add https://github.com/Erik1000/git_symlink_submodule.git
git commit -m "chore: add submodule"

# Now create the symlinks using cmd.exe /c mklink
# (assuming permissions are granted / Developer Mode is active)
# Also ensure core.symlinks is true
git config core.symlinks
# true

# Note that the Powershell New-Item command 
#  New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Name my_dir -Target .\git_symlink_submodule\to_be_included\  
# will create a hardlink and its not possible to create soft links from powershell it seems

# Directory symlink
cmd.exe /c mklink /D "my_dir" ".\git_symlink_submodule\to_be_included"

# File symlink
cmd.exe /c mklink "my_file" ".\git_symlink_submodule\to_be_included\some_file"

# Verify using cmd /A
cmd.exe /c "dir /A"

# You should see:
# <SYMLINKD>     my_dir [C:\...\git_symlink_submodule\to_be_included]
# <SYMLINK>      my_file [C:\...\git_symlink_submodule\to_be_included\some_file]

# Commit the symlinks
git add -A
git commit -m "chore: add symlinks"

# Push the repo
git remote add origin https://github.com/Erik1000/git_symlink_repo.git
git branch -M main
git push -u origin main



Now we clone again:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/Erik1000/git_symlink_repo.git other_repo


Cloning into 'other_repo'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 7, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (7/7), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done.
remote: Total 7 (delta 1), reused 6 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (7/7), done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (1/1), done.
Submodule 'git_symlink_submodule' (https://github.com/Erik1000/git_symlink_submodule.git) registered for path 'git_symlink_submodule'
Cloning into 'C:/Users/X/Documents/git-bug/other_repo/git_symlink_submodule'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 4, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (4/4), done.
remote: Total 4 (delta 0), reused 4 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (4/4), done.
Submodule path 'git_symlink_submodule': checked out '5e07b27384b1b5f9110aff1a6bde459fd12cca86'




cd .\other_repo\

cmd.exe /c dir /A
 Volume in drive C is Windows
 Volume Serial Number is X

 Directory of C:\Users\X\Documents\git-bug\other_repo

24.08.2026  17:44    <DIR>          .
24.08.2026  17:44    <DIR>          ..
24.08.2026  17:44    <DIR>          .git
24.08.2026  17:44               130 .gitmodules
24.08.2026  17:44    <DIR>          git_symlink_submodule
24.08.2026  17:44    <SYMLINK>      my_dir [.\git_symlink_submodule\to_be_included]
24.08.2026  17:44    <SYMLINK>      my_file [.\git_symlink_submodule\to_be_included\some_file]


**Note**: The my_dir symlink became `SYMLINK` instead of `SYMLINKD` which breaks the symlink.

Expected behaviour

Git creates a file symbolic link for my_dir

Actual behaviour

It should create a directory symbolic link for my_dir (SYMLINKD

Repository

You can clone https://github.com/Erik1000/git_symlink_repo.git for a minimal repo.

Note that manually deleting the file and dir symlink and recreating them using mklink does not appear a a change to git

cmd.exe /c mklink /D "my_dir" ".\git_symlink_submodule\to_be_included"
cmd.exe /c mklink "my_file" ".\git_symlink_submodule\to_be_included\some_file"

[Erik1000]

It does not seem to reproduce if the symbolic link is to a directory inside the same repository.