diff --git a/tools/build_debian.sh b/tools/build_debian.sh
index 45d49f56b..0c03e6643 100755
--- a/tools/build_debian.sh
+++ b/tools/build_debian.sh
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ fi
 
 # check git repository
 root_dir=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
-if [ -z "${root_dir}" ] || [ ! -d "${root_dir}/.git" ] || [ ! -d "${root_dir}/debian-stable" ]; then
+if [ -z "${root_dir}" ] || [ ! -e "${root_dir}/.git" ] || [ ! -d "${root_dir}/debian-stable" ]; then
     error "this script must be run from WeeChat git repository."
 fi
 cd "${root_dir}"
diff --git a/tools/makedist.sh b/tools/makedist.sh
index ecd56ef1a..97ce416e0 100755
--- a/tools/makedist.sh
+++ b/tools/makedist.sh
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ error ()
 
 # check git repository
 root_dir=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
-if [ -z "${root_dir}" ] || [ ! -d "${root_dir}/.git" ]; then
+if [ -z "${root_dir}" ] || [ ! -e "${root_dir}/.git" ]; then
     error "this script must be run from WeeChat git repository."
 fi
 cd "${root_dir}"
diff --git a/tools/set_git_version.sh b/tools/set_git_version.sh
index f3c3b8b27..494d9b887 100755
--- a/tools/set_git_version.sh
+++ b/tools/set_git_version.sh
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ git_version=""
 case ${version} in
 *-*)
     # devel/rc version (like 0.4.0-dev or 0.4.0-rc1)
-    if [ -d "${root_dir}/.git" ]; then
+    if [ -e "${root_dir}/.git" ]; then
         git_version=$(cd "${root_dir}" && git describe 2>/dev/null)
     fi
     ;;