[Bug]: Windows builds do not support symlinks

[mbland]

What happened?

All the Windows builds failed for #5490 (Publish rules_scala@7.1.0). The "missing" protobuf.patch file is a symlink to protoc/0001-protobuf-19679-rm-protoc-dep.patch in the top level repo.

ERROR: in module dependency chain <root> -> protobuf@31.1:
  error applying single_version_override patch
  C:/b/bk-windows-326v/bazel-org-repo-root/output/rules_scala-7.1.0/examples/crossbuild/protobuf.patch
  to module file:
  Cannot find patch file:
  C:/b/bk-windows-326v/bazel-org-repo-root/output/rules_scala-7.1.0/examples/crossbuild/protobuf.patch

My understanding is that Windows has supported symlinks since Windows 10. I'd expect them to work in the presubmit build.

Version

Development (host) and target OS/architectures:

• Windows 2022(?) x86_64

Output of bazel --version:

• 7.6.1
• 8.3.1
• 9.0.0-pre.20250730.2
• last_green at 7aad1e82150675721d144a96771a5071010381b7

Version of relevant rules from the WORKSPACE or MODULE.bazel file:

• examples/crossbuild/MODULE.bazel from rules_scala 7.1.0

Language(s) and/or frameworks involved:

• N/A

How to reproduce

git clone https://github.com/bazel-contrib/rules_scala.git
git checkout v7.1.0
cd examples/crossbuild
bazel build //...

Any other information?

I plan to create a pull request to make a copy of the patch file to unblock #5490. I'd like to know whether this will be a permanent workaround (unless protocolbuffers/protobuf#19679 finally clears) or if the Windows build will eventually support symlinks.

This may be related to bazelbuild/continuous-integration#2350 and #5205.

[mbland]

bazelbuild/continuous-integration#2350 resolved this problem, fixing the Bazel 7 Windows build for #5490. (bazel-contrib/rules_scala#1761 addresses the remaining Windows build breakages, completely unrelated to this issue.)