From 7acf2b3acfbd831dd7b5ab35a5985ff8854eb346 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Emi Katagiri-Simpson <emi@alchemi.dev>
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2025 23:15:45 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Dereference symlinks before hardlinking

(see #5676)
---
 beets/util/__init__.py |  4 +++-
 docs/changelog.rst     |  4 ++++
 test/test_files.py     | 18 +++++++++++++++++-
 3 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/beets/util/__init__.py b/beets/util/__init__.py
index b882ed626..6f51bbd52 100644
--- a/beets/util/__init__.py
+++ b/beets/util/__init__.py
@@ -605,7 +605,9 @@ def hardlink(path: bytes, dest: bytes, replace: bool = False):
     if os.path.exists(syspath(dest)) and not replace:
         raise FilesystemError("file exists", "rename", (path, dest))
     try:
-        os.link(syspath(path), syspath(dest))
+        # This step dereferences any symlinks and converts to an absolute path
+        resolved_origin = Path(syspath(path)).resolve()
+        os.link(resolved_origin, syspath(dest))
     except NotImplementedError:
         raise FilesystemError(
             "OS does not support hard links." "link",
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 88d87e32f..27fcbc24f 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ Bug fixes:
 * :doc:`plugins/fetchart`: Fix fetchart bug where a tempfile could not be deleted due to never being
   properly closed.
   :bug:`5521`
+* When hardlinking from a symlink (e.g. importing a symlink with hardlinking
+  enabled), dereference the symlink then hardlink, rather than creating a new
+  (potentially broken) symlink
+  :bug:`5676`
 * :doc:`plugins/lyrics`: LRCLib will fallback to plain lyrics if synced lyrics
   are not found and `synced` flag is set to `yes`.
 * Synchronise files included in the source distribution with what we used to
diff --git a/test/test_files.py b/test/test_files.py
index 72b1610c0..c99f8f02b 100644
--- a/test/test_files.py
+++ b/test/test_files.py
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ class MoveTest(BeetsTestCase):
         super().setUp()
 
         # make a temporary file
-        self.path = join(self.temp_dir, b"temp.mp3")
+        self.temp_music_file_name = b"temp.mp3"
+        self.path = join(self.temp_dir, self.temp_music_file_name)
         shutil.copy(
             syspath(join(_common.RSRC, b"full.mp3")),
             syspath(self.path),
@@ -199,6 +200,21 @@ class MoveTest(BeetsTestCase):
         self.i.move(operation=MoveOperation.HARDLINK)
         assert self.i.path == util.normpath(self.dest)
 
+    @unittest.skipUnless(_common.HAVE_HARDLINK, "need hardlinks")
+    def test_hardlink_from_symlink(self):
+        link_path = join(self.temp_dir, b"temp_link.mp3")
+        link_source = join(b"./", self.temp_music_file_name)
+        os.symlink(syspath(link_source), syspath(link_path))
+        self.i.path = link_path
+        self.i.move(operation=MoveOperation.HARDLINK)
+
+        s1 = os.stat(syspath(self.path))
+        s2 = os.stat(syspath(self.dest))
+        assert (s1[stat.ST_INO], s1[stat.ST_DEV]) == (
+            s2[stat.ST_INO],
+            s2[stat.ST_DEV],
+        )
+
 
 class HelperTest(BeetsTestCase):
     def test_ancestry_works_on_file(self):

From b405d2fded8a7bb0591c0cd6ff7a9fd1c8c9bc18 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Emi Katagiri-Simpson <emi@alchemi.dev>
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2025 15:05:56 -0500
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Migrate `os` calls to `pathlib` calls in hardlink util
 function

See discussion here: https://github.com/beetbox/beets/pull/5684#discussion_r2502432781
---
 beets/util/__init__.py | 10 ++++++----
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/beets/util/__init__.py b/beets/util/__init__.py
index b053e9c73..c95c2e523 100644
--- a/beets/util/__init__.py
+++ b/beets/util/__init__.py
@@ -578,12 +578,14 @@ def hardlink(path: bytes, dest: bytes, replace: bool = False):
     if samefile(path, dest):
         return
 
-    if os.path.exists(syspath(dest)) and not replace:
+    # Dereference symlinks, expand "~", and convert relative paths to absolute
+    origin_path = Path(os.fsdecode(path)).expanduser().resolve()
+    dest_path = Path(os.fsdecode(dest)).expanduser().resolve()
+
+    if dest_path.exists() and not replace:
         raise FilesystemError("file exists", "rename", (path, dest))
     try:
-        # This step dereferences any symlinks and converts to an absolute path
-        resolved_origin = Path(syspath(path)).resolve()
-        os.link(resolved_origin, syspath(dest))
+        dest_path.hardlink_to(origin_path)
     except NotImplementedError:
         raise FilesystemError(
             "OS does not support hard links.link",