Symlinks cannot be used as config files or directories

The code that checks properties of the filesystem uses `lstat`. The difference between `lstat` and `stat` from the docs:

> `lstat()` is identical to `stat()`, except that if `path` is a symbolic link, then the link itself is stat-ed, not the file that it refers to.

This prevents the usage of symbolic links to config files and directories. Is this intentional? Could `stat` be used instead?