+
+ if (len <= state->base_dir_len)
+ /*
+ * checkout-index --prefix=<dir>; <dir> is
+ * allowed to be a symlink to an existing
+ * directory.
+ */
+ stat_status = stat(buf, &st);
+ else
+ /*
+ * if there currently is a symlink, we would
+ * want to replace it with a real directory.
+ */
+ stat_status = lstat(buf, &st);
+
+ if (!stat_status && S_ISDIR(st.st_mode))
+ continue; /* ok, it is already a directory. */
+
+ /*
+ * We know stat_status == 0 means something exists
+ * there and this mkdir would fail, but that is an
+ * error codepath; we do not care, as we unlink and
+ * mkdir again in such a case.
+ */