diff --git a/diff.c b/diff.c
index 608223ab56..23d454e71d 100644
--- a/diff.c
+++ b/diff.c
@@ -1311,6 +1311,8 @@ static const char *get_textconv(struct diff_filespec *one)
 {
 	if (!DIFF_FILE_VALID(one))
 		return NULL;
+	if (!S_ISREG(one->mode))
+		return NULL;
 	diff_filespec_load_driver(one);
 	return one->driver->textconv;
 }
diff --git a/t/t4030-diff-textconv.sh b/t/t4030-diff-textconv.sh
index 1df48ae12a..3945731e9a 100755
--- a/t/t4030-diff-textconv.sh
+++ b/t/t4030-diff-textconv.sh
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ index ad8b3d2..67be421
 \ No newline at end of file
 EOF
 # make a symlink the hard way that works on symlink-challenged file systems
-test_expect_failure 'textconv does not act on symlinks' '
+test_expect_success 'textconv does not act on symlinks' '
 	echo -n frotz > file &&
 	git add file &&
 	git ls-files -s | sed -e s/100644/120000/ |