t7800: remove whitespace before redirect

index d13350ce83..6aab5cd23a 100644
@@ -254,6 +254,49 @@ static int ensure_leading_directories(char *path)
 	}
 }
 
+/*
+ * Unconditional writing of a plain regular file is what
+ * "git difftool --dir-diff" wants to do for symlinks.  We are preparing two
+ * temporary directories to be fed to a Git-unaware tool that knows how to
+ * show a diff of two directories (e.g. "diff -r A B").
+ *
+ * Because the tool is Git-unaware, if a symbolic link appears in either of
+ * these temporary directories, it will try to dereference and show the
+ * difference of the target of the symbolic link, which is not what we want,
+ * as the goal of the dir-diff mode is to produce an output that is logically
+ * equivalent to what "git diff" produces.
+ *
+ * Most importantly, we want to get textual comparison of the result of the
+ * readlink(2).  get_symlink() provides that---it returns the contents of
+ * the symlink that gets written to a regular file to force the external tool
+ * to compare the readlink(2) result as text, even on a filesystem that is
+ * capable of doing a symbolic link.
+ */
+static char *get_symlink(const struct object_id *oid, const char *path)
+{
+	char *data;
+	if (is_null_oid(oid)) {
+		/* The symlink is unknown to Git so read from the filesystem */
+		struct strbuf link = STRBUF_INIT;
+		if (has_symlinks) {
+			if (strbuf_readlink(&link, path, strlen(path)))
+				die(_("could not read symlink %s"), path);
+		} else if (strbuf_read_file(&link, path, 128))
+			die(_("could not read symlink file %s"), path);
+
+		data = strbuf_detach(&link, NULL);
+	} else {
+		enum object_type type;
+		unsigned long size;
+		data = read_sha1_file(oid->hash, &type, &size);
+		if (!data)
+			die(_("could not read object %s for symlink %s"),
+				oid_to_hex(oid), path);
+	}
+
+	return data;
+}
+
 static int run_dir_diff(const char *extcmd, int symlinks, const char *prefix,
 			int argc, const char **argv)
 {

@@ -270,8 +313,6 @@ static int run_dir_diff(const char *extcmd, int symlinks, const char *prefix,
 	struct hashmap working_tree_dups, submodules, symlinks2;
 	struct hashmap_iter iter;
 	struct pair_entry *entry;
-	enum object_type type;
-	unsigned long size;
 	struct index_state wtindex;
 	struct checkout lstate, rstate;
 	int rc, flags = RUN_GIT_CMD, err = 0;

@@ -377,13 +418,13 @@ static int run_dir_diff(const char *extcmd, int symlinks, const char *prefix,
 		}
 
 		if (S_ISLNK(lmode)) {
-			char *content = read_sha1_file(loid.hash, &type, &size);
+			char *content = get_symlink(&loid, src_path);
 			add_left_or_right(&symlinks2, src_path, content, 0);
 			free(content);
 		}
 
 		if (S_ISLNK(rmode)) {
-			char *content = read_sha1_file(roid.hash, &type, &size);
+			char *content = get_symlink(&roid, dst_path);
 			add_left_or_right(&symlinks2, dst_path, content, 1);
 			free(content);
 		}

@@ -397,7 +438,7 @@ static int run_dir_diff(const char *extcmd, int symlinks, const char *prefix,
 				return error("could not write '%s'", src_path);
 		}
 
-		if (rmode) {
+		if (rmode && !S_ISLNK(rmode)) {
 			struct working_tree_entry *entry;
 
 			/* Avoid duplicate working_tree entries */

@@ -414,6 +455,7 @@ static int run_dir_diff(const char *extcmd, int symlinks, const char *prefix,
 				oidcpy(&ce->oid, &roid);
 				strcpy(ce->name, dst_path);
 				ce->ce_namelen = dst_path_len;
+
 				if (checkout_entry(ce, &rstate, NULL))
 					return error("could not write '%s'",
 						     dst_path);

@@ -487,6 +529,7 @@ static int run_dir_diff(const char *extcmd, int symlinks, const char *prefix,
 	 * shows only the link itself, not the contents of the link target.
 	 * This loop replicates that behavior.
 	 */
+
 	hashmap_iter_init(&symlinks2, &iter);
 	while ((entry = hashmap_iter_next(&iter))) {
 		if (*entry->left) {