Create hard link if possible, else use symlink

Question

I am trying to write a shell script to create link for file from my dotfiles repo to my home folder.

I want to use hard link if possible because it cannot be broken when moving it to somewhere in the same filesystem with HOME.

But if I clone the dotfiles to another filesystem, I have to use symlink instead.

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So, how to create hard link for file if possible, else use symlink in shell script?

Answer 1

ln source target 2>/dev/null || ln -s source target 2>/dev/null || exit 1

or, slightly more "interactively" (chattier),

if ! ln source target 2>/dev/null; then
    echo 'failed to create hard link, trying symbolic link instead' >&2
    if ! ln -s source target 2>/dev/null; then
        echo 'that failed too, bailing out' >&2
        exit 1
    fi
fi

Remove the redirections to /dev/null to see the error messages displayed by ln (if any).