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+## What steps will reproduce the problem?
+
+Take a large sub-directory in a repository (e.g. `ccash`) with some files within,
+
+     $ tar -xzf ccash.tar.gz
+     $ du -sh ccash
+     59M	ccash
+     $ ls -l ccash/trunk/annotationinterface/src/edu/byu/nlp/annotationinterface/java/BasicAnnotation.java ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/dom4j.jar 
+     -rw-r--r-- 1 dietz dietz   1748 Jul 27  2011 ccash/trunk/annotationinterface/src/edu/byu/nlp/annotationinterface/java/BasicAnnotation.java
+     -rw-r--r-- 1 dietz dietz 313898 May 22 18:36 ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/dom4j.jar
+
+Annex it,
+
+     $ git annex add ccash
+     ...
+     $ ls -l ccash/trunk/annotationinterface/src/edu/byu/nlp/annotationinterface/java/BasicAnnotation.java ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/dom4j.jar 
+     lrwxrwxrwx 1 dietz dietz 215 Jul 27  2011 ccash/trunk/annotationinterface/src/edu/byu/nlp/annotationinterface/java/BasicAnnotation.java -> ../../../../../../../../../../../.git/annex/objects/mv/zf/SHA256-s1748--5c0d1cbf104214b6d0ab85c53a85cadb975ec208f42a7b33a76d85e175352486/SHA256-s1748--5c0d1cbf104214b6d0ab85c53a85cadb975ec208f42a7b33a76d85e175352486
+     lrwxrwxrwx 1 dietz dietz 210 Jul 27  2011 ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/dom4j.jar -> ../../../../../../../../.git/annex/objects/8G/gQ/SHA256-s313898--593552ffea3c5823c6602478b5002a7c525fd904a3c44f1abe4065c22edfac73/SHA256-s313898--593552ffea3c5823c6602478b5002a7c525fd904a3c44f1abe4065c22edfac73
+
+Unannex it (before or after committing),
+
+     $ git annex unannex ccash
+
+Note that some fraction of the files will still be symbolic links, now pointing to non-existent files. This data has apparently been lost forever.
+
+     $ ls -l ccash/trunk/annotationinterface/src/edu/byu/nlp/annotationinterface/java/BasicAnnotation.java ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/dom4j.jar 
+     -rw-r--r-- 1 dietz dietz 1748 Jul 27  2011 ccash/trunk/annotationinterface/src/edu/byu/nlp/annotationinterface/java/BasicAnnotation.java
+     lrwxrwxrwx 1 dietz dietz  210 Jul 27  2011 ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/dom4j.jar -> ../../../../../../../../.git/annex/objects/8G/gQ/SHA256-s313898--593552ffea3c5823c6602478b5002a7c525fd904a3c44f1abe4065c22edfac73/SHA256-s313898--593552ffea3c5823c6602478b5002a7c525fd904a3c44f1abe4065c22edfac73
+
+It is unclear why some files are affected while others are not. That being said, unannexing small numbers of files at a time appears to avoid the issue,
+
+     $ tar -zxf ccash.tar.gz
+     $ git annex add ccash
+     $ ls -l ccash/trunk/annotationinterface/src/edu/byu/nlp/annotationinterface/java/BasicAnnotation.java ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/dom4j.jar 
+     lrwxrwxrwx 1 dietz dietz 215 Jul 27  2011 ccash/trunk/annotationinterface/src/edu/byu/nlp/annotationinterface/java/BasicAnnotation.java -> ../../../../../../../../../../../.git/annex/objects/mv/zf/SHA256-s1748--5c0d1cbf104214b6d0ab85c53a85cadb975ec208f42a7b33a76d85e175352486/SHA256-s1748--5c0d1cbf104214b6d0ab85c53a85cadb975ec208f42a7b33a76d85e175352486
+     lrwxrwxrwx 1 dietz dietz 210 Jul 27  2011 ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/dom4j.jar -> ../../../../../../../../.git/annex/objects/8G/gQ/SHA256-s313898--593552ffea3c5823c6602478b5002a7c525fd904a3c44f1abe4065c22edfac73/SHA256-s313898--593552ffea3c5823c6602478b5002a7c525fd904a3c44f1abe4065c22edfac73
+     $ git annex unannex ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF
+     ...
+     $ ls -l ccash/trunk/annotationinterface/src/edu/byu/nlp/annotationinterface/java/BasicAnnotation.java ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/dom4j.jar 
+     lrwxrwxrwx 1 dietz dietz    215 Jul 27  2011 ccash/trunk/annotationinterface/src/edu/byu/nlp/annotationinterface/java/BasicAnnotation.java -> ../../../../../../../../../../../.git/annex/objects/mv/zf/SHA256-s1748--5c0d1cbf104214b6d0ab85c53a85cadb975ec208f42a7b33a76d85e175352486/SHA256-s1748--5c0d1cbf104214b6d0ab85c53a85cadb975ec208f42a7b33a76d85e175352486
+     -rw-r--r-- 1 dietz dietz 313898 Jul 27  2011 ccash/trunk/DataProvider/WebContent/WEB-INF/lib/dom4j.jar
+
+For this reason, it seems likely this is due to some sort of race condition.
+
+
+## What version of git-annex are you using? On what operating system?
+
+This is on Ubuntu 12.04 with git-annex revision a1e2bc4.
+
+