fix: only skip broken symlinks when matched by .helmignore

Instead of silently skipping all broken symlinks unconditionally,
pass the error to the walkFn callback so chart loaders can check
.helmignore patterns before deciding whether to error.

- internal/sympath/walk.go: call walkFn with the error instead of
  returning nil for broken symlinks
- pkg/chart/v2/loader/directory.go: skip broken symlink errors only
  when the file matches a .helmignore rule
- internal/chart/v3/loader/directory.go: same fix for v3 charts
- Add TestLoadDirWithBrokenSymlinkNotInHelmignore to verify that
  broken symlinks not in .helmignore still cause an error

Signed-off-by: Kartik Suryavanshi <kartik.suryavanshi@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Kartik Suryavanshi <158498247+KartikSuryavanshi@users.noreply.github.com>

internal/chart/v3/loader/directory.go

@@ -77,6 +77,10 @@ func LoadDir(dir string) (*chart.Chart, error) {
 		n = filepath.ToSlash(n)
 
 		if err != nil {
+			// For broken symlinks, respect .helmignore before erroring.
+			if os.IsNotExist(err) && fi != nil && rules.Ignore(n, fi) {
+				return nil
+			}
 			return err
 		}
 		if fi.IsDir() {

internal/chart/v3/loader/load_test.go

@@ -90,6 +90,46 @@ func TestLoadDirWithSymlink(t *testing.T) {
 	verifyDependenciesLock(t, c)
 }
 
+func TestLoadDirWithBrokenSymlinkNotInHelmignore(t *testing.T) {
+	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
+		t.Skip("symlink tests require unix")
+	}
+
+	tmpDir := t.TempDir()
+
+	chartYAML := `apiVersion: v2
+name: test
+version: 0.1.0
+`
+	valuesYAML := `{}
+`
+	if err := os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(tmpDir, "Chart.yaml"), []byte(chartYAML), 0644); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(tmpDir, "values.yaml"), []byte(valuesYAML), 0644); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	// Create a broken symlink NOT listed in .helmignore
+	brokenLink := filepath.Join(tmpDir, "broken")
+	if err := os.Symlink("nonexistent", brokenLink); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	// Empty .helmignore — broken symlink is not ignored
+	if err := os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(tmpDir, ".helmignore"), []byte(""), 0644); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	l, err := Loader(tmpDir)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if _, err := l.Load(); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("loading chart with broken symlink not in .helmignore should fail")
+	}
+}
+
 func TestLoadDirWithBrokenSymlinkInHelmignore(t *testing.T) {
 	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
 		t.Skip("symlink tests require unix")

internal/sympath/walk.go

@@ -68,11 +68,10 @@ func symwalk(path string, info os.FileInfo, walkFn filepath.WalkFunc) error {
 		resolved, err := filepath.EvalSymlinks(path)
 		if err != nil {
 			if os.IsNotExist(err) {
-				// If a symlink's target does not exist (broken symlink),
-				// silently skip it. Broken symlinks do not contribute
-				// content and should not cause errors, especially when
-				// they match .helmignore patterns.
-				return nil
+				// Pass the broken symlink error to walkFn so callers
+				// (e.g. chart loaders) can decide whether to skip it
+				// based on .helmignore rules.
+				return walkFn(path, info, err)
 			}
 			return err
 		}

pkg/chart/v2/loader/directory.go

@@ -77,6 +77,10 @@ func LoadDir(dir string) (*chart.Chart, error) {
 		n = filepath.ToSlash(n)
 
 		if err != nil {
+			// For broken symlinks, respect .helmignore before erroring.
+			if os.IsNotExist(err) && fi != nil && rules.Ignore(n, fi) {
+				return nil
+			}
 			return err
 		}
 		if fi.IsDir() {

pkg/chart/v2/loader/load_test.go

@@ -90,6 +90,46 @@ func TestLoadDirWithSymlink(t *testing.T) {
 	verifyDependenciesLock(t, c)
 }
 
+func TestLoadDirWithBrokenSymlinkNotInHelmignore(t *testing.T) {
+	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
+		t.Skip("symlink tests require unix")
+	}
+
+	tmpDir := t.TempDir()
+
+	chartYAML := `apiVersion: v2
+name: test
+version: 0.1.0
+`
+	valuesYAML := `{}
+`
+	if err := os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(tmpDir, "Chart.yaml"), []byte(chartYAML), 0644); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(tmpDir, "values.yaml"), []byte(valuesYAML), 0644); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	// Create a broken symlink NOT listed in .helmignore
+	brokenLink := filepath.Join(tmpDir, "broken")
+	if err := os.Symlink("nonexistent", brokenLink); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	// Empty .helmignore — broken symlink is not ignored
+	if err := os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(tmpDir, ".helmignore"), []byte(""), 0644); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	l, err := Loader(tmpDir)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if _, err := l.Load(); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("loading chart with broken symlink not in .helmignore should fail")
+	}
+}
+
 func TestLoadDirWithBrokenSymlinkInHelmignore(t *testing.T) {
 	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
 		t.Skip("symlink tests require unix")