diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index a0d0aa7cb4..bb86788b06 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -131,7 +131,10 @@ function(link_to_source base_name)
         set(target "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/${base_name}")
     endif()
 
-    if (NOT EXISTS ${link})
+    # Linking to non-existent file is not desirable. At best you will have a
+    # dangling link, but when building in tree, this can create a symbolic link
+    # to itself.
+    if (EXISTS ${target} AND NOT EXISTS ${link})
         if (CMAKE_HOST_UNIX)
             set(command ln -s ${target} ${link})
         else()
diff --git a/ChangeLog.d/fix_cmake_gen_files b/ChangeLog.d/fix_cmake_gen_files
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3b2c09992b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ChangeLog.d/fix_cmake_gen_files
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Bugfix
+   * Fix an issue in releases with GEN_FILES turned off whereby missing
+     generated files could be turned into symlinks to themselves.