From 717c9a822db8e081c2001b79d63eaa1663277b95 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Bryce Kwon <bryce@brycekwon.com>
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2026 12:53:18 -1000
Subject: Show an absolute link target as text

A symlink to /etc/passwd was resolved against the tree and linked to
etc/passwd inside it, a different file or none at all.
---
 source/ui-tree.c    |  7 ++++---
 tests/t0104-tree.sh | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/source/ui-tree.c b/source/ui-tree.c
index c030134..51ab9ff 100644
--- a/source/ui-tree.c
+++ b/source/ui-tree.c
@@ -336,9 +336,10 @@ static void print_ls_row(const struct object_id *oid, const char *pathname,
 		} else {
 			strbuf_addbuf(&linkpath, &fullpath);
 			strbuf_addf(&linkpath, "/../%s", buf);
-			// A target climbing above the tree root has nothing to
-			// link to.
-			if (strbuf_normalize_path(&linkpath))
+			// A target climbing above the tree root, or one given
+			// from the root of the filesystem, has nothing in the
+			// tree to link to.
+			if (buf[0] == '/' || strbuf_normalize_path(&linkpath))
 				html_txt(buf);
 			else
 				cgit_tree_link(buf, NULL, class.buf, ctx.qry.head, walk->rev,
diff --git a/tests/t0104-tree.sh b/tests/t0104-tree.sh
index 48c8406..a2ec3c2 100755
--- a/tests/t0104-tree.sh
+++ b/tests/t0104-tree.sh
@@ -82,4 +82,30 @@ test_expect_success 'a file row still offers blame' '
 	grep ">blame</a>" tmp
 '
 
+# A link target inside the tree becomes a link, while an absolute one names a
+# file on whatever machine checks the tree out, not a path in the tree.
+test_expect_success 'only a link target inside the tree is linked' '
+	test_create_repo repos/links &&
+	(
+		cd repos/links &&
+		echo hi >target.txt &&
+		git add target.txt &&
+		rel=$(printf target.txt | git hash-object -w --stdin) &&
+		abs=$(printf /etc/passwd | git hash-object -w --stdin) &&
+		git update-index --add --cacheinfo 120000,$rel,rel &&
+		git update-index --add --cacheinfo 120000,$abs,abs &&
+		git commit -m links
+	) &&
+	{
+		echo "virtual-root=/" &&
+		echo "cache-size=0" &&
+		echo "repo.url=links" &&
+		echo "repo.path=$PWD/repos/links/.git"
+	} >linksrc &&
+	CGIT_CONFIG="$PWD/linksrc" QUERY_STRING="url=links/tree/" cgit >tmp &&
+	grep " -> <a class=.ls-blob. href=./links/tree/target.txt.>target.txt</a>" tmp &&
+	grep " -> /etc/passwd</td>" tmp &&
+	! grep "href=./links/tree/etc/passwd" tmp
+'
+
 test_done
-- 
cgit