diff --git a/Annex/Fixup.hs b/Annex/Fixup.hs
index e0a5a33e20..35e0c5497c 100644
--- a/Annex/Fixup.hs
+++ b/Annex/Fixup.hs
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import Utility.Directory
 import Utility.Exception
 import Utility.Monad
 import Utility.FileSystemEncoding
+import qualified Utility.RawFilePath as R
 import Utility.PartialPrelude
 
 import System.IO
@@ -112,9 +113,9 @@ fixupUnusualRepos r@(Repo { location = l@(Local { worktree = Just w, gitdir = d
 	dotgit' = fromRawFilePath dotgit
 
 	replacedotgit = whenM (doesFileExist dotgit') $ do
-		linktarget <- relPathDirToFile (fromRawFilePath w) (fromRawFilePath d)
+		linktarget <- relPathDirToFile w d
 		nukeFile dotgit'
-		createSymbolicLink linktarget dotgit'
+		R.createSymbolicLink linktarget dotgit'
 	
 	unsetcoreworktree =
 		maybe (error "unset core.worktree failed") (\_ -> return ())
diff --git a/Git/CheckAttr.hs b/Git/CheckAttr.hs
index 04e5d1e4f7..ae50acee64 100644
--- a/Git/CheckAttr.hs
+++ b/Git/CheckAttr.hs
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import Git
 import Git.Command
 import Utility.Path.AbsRel
 import qualified Utility.CoProcess as CoProcess
+import qualified Utility.RawFilePath as R
 
 import System.IO.Error
 import qualified Data.ByteString as B
@@ -24,7 +25,7 @@ type Attr = String
  - values and returns a handle.  -}
 checkAttrStart :: [Attr] -> Repo -> IO CheckAttrHandle
 checkAttrStart attrs repo = do
-	currdir <- toRawFilePath <$> getCurrentDirectory
+	currdir <- R.getCurrentDirectory
 	h <- gitCoProcessStart True params repo
 	return (h, attrs, currdir)
   where
diff --git a/Git/CurrentRepo.hs b/Git/CurrentRepo.hs
index e99b25a2b9..d99900bddb 100644
--- a/Git/CurrentRepo.hs
+++ b/Git/CurrentRepo.hs
@@ -66,10 +66,10 @@ get = do
 
 	configure Nothing (Just r) = Git.Config.read r
 	configure (Just d) _ = do
-		absd <- absPath d
+		absd <- absPath (fromRawFilePath d)
 		curr <- getCurrentDirectory
 		loc <- adjustGitDirFile $ Local
-			{ gitdir = toRawFilePath absd
+			{ gitdir = absd
 			, worktree = Just (toRawFilePath curr)
 			}
 		r <- Git.Config.read $ newFrom loc
diff --git a/Git/LsFiles.hs b/Git/LsFiles.hs
index c839291678..3ba4ae9967 100644
--- a/Git/LsFiles.hs
+++ b/Git/LsFiles.hs
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ import Utility.InodeCache
 import Utility.TimeStamp
 import Utility.Attoparsec
 import Utility.Path.AbsRel
+import qualified Utility.RawFilePath as R
 
 import System.Posix.Types
 import qualified Data.Map as M
@@ -214,7 +215,7 @@ typeChanged' ps l repo = guardSafeForLsFiles repo $ do
 	-- git diff returns filenames relative to the top of the git repo;
 	-- convert to filenames relative to the cwd, like git ls-files.
 	top <- absPath (repoPath repo)
-	currdir <- toRawFilePath <$> getCurrentDirectory
+	currdir <- R.getCurrentDirectory
 	return (map (\f -> relPathDirToFileAbs currdir $ top P.</> f) fs, cleanup)
   where
 	prefix = 
diff --git a/Utility/RawFilePath.hs b/Utility/RawFilePath.hs
index b4c1d028bc..ebbbabc4bd 100644
--- a/Utility/RawFilePath.hs
+++ b/Utility/RawFilePath.hs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-{- Portability shim around System.Posix.Files.ByteString
+{- Portability shim around System.Posix.Files.ByteString and
+ - System.Posix.Directory.ByteString
  -
  - On unix, this makes syscalls using RawFilesPaths as efficiently as
  - possible.
@@ -7,7 +8,7 @@
  - decoded. So this library will work, but less efficiently than using
  - FilePath would.
  -
- - Copyright 2019 Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>
+ - Copyright 2019-2020 Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>
  -
  - License: BSD-2-clause
  -}
@@ -17,20 +18,26 @@
 module Utility.RawFilePath (
 	RawFilePath,
 	readSymbolicLink,
+	createSymbolicLink,
 	getFileStatus,
 	getSymbolicLinkStatus,
 	doesPathExist,
+	getCurrentDirectory,
 ) where
 
 #ifndef mingw32_HOST_OS
 import Utility.FileSystemEncoding (RawFilePath)
 import System.Posix.Files.ByteString
+import System.Posix.Directory.ByteString
 
 -- | Checks if a file or directoy exists. Note that a dangling symlink
 -- will be false.
 doesPathExist :: RawFilePath -> IO Bool
 doesPathExist = fileExist
 
+getCurrentDirectory :: IO RawFilePath
+getCurrentDirectory = getWorkingDirectory
+
 #else
 import qualified Data.ByteString as B
 import System.PosixCompat (FileStatus)
@@ -41,6 +48,11 @@ import Utility.FileSystemEncoding
 readSymbolicLink :: RawFilePath -> IO RawFilePath
 readSymbolicLink f = toRawFilePath <$> P.readSymbolicLink (fromRawFilePath f)
 
+createSymbolicLink :: RawFilePath -> RawFilePath -> IO ()
+createSymbolicLink a b = P.createSymbolicLink
+	(fromRawFilePath a)
+	(fromRawFilePath b)
+
 getFileStatus :: RawFilePath -> IO FileStatus
 getFileStatus = P.getFileStatus . fromRawFilePath
 
@@ -49,4 +61,7 @@ getSymbolicLinkStatus = P.getSymbolicLinkStatus . fromRawFilePath
 
 doesPathExist :: RawFilePath -> IO Bool
 doesPathExist = D.doesPathExist . fromRawFilePath
+
+getCurrentDirectory :: IO RawFilePath
+getCurrentDirectory = toRawFilePath <$> D.getCurrentDirectory
 #endif