file module, follow symlink when doing hardlink (#34228)

Fixes: #33911

changelogs/fragments/file_hardlink.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+---
+bugfixes:
+  - file - retrieve the link's full path when hard linking a soft link with follow (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/33911).

lib/ansible/modules/file.py

@@ -872,6 +872,8 @@ def ensure_hardlink(path, src, follow, force, timestamps):
                                                   'path': path})
         else:
             try:
+                if follow and os.path.islink(b_src):
+                    b_src = os.readlink(b_src)
                 os.link(b_src, b_path)
             except OSError as e:
                 raise AnsibleModuleError(results={'msg': 'Error while linking: %s'

test/integration/targets/file/tasks/link_follow.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+- name: Ensure output_dir
+  file:
+    path: "{{output_dir}}"
+    state: directory
+
+- name: Touch a file in it
+  file:
+    path: "{{output_dir}}/original.txt"
+    state: touch
+
+- name: Create a symlink
+  file:
+    src: "{{output_dir}}/original.txt"
+    dest: "{{output_dir}}/soft.txt"
+    state: link
+
+- name: Create an hard link with follow to the sym link
+  file:
+    src: "{{output_dir}}/soft.txt"
+    dest: "{{output_dir}}/hard.txt"
+    state: hard
+    follow: yes
+
+- name: Create a symlink from another symlink
+  file:
+    src: "{{output_dir}}/soft.txt"
+    dest: "{{output_dir}}/soft2.txt"
+    follow: yes
+    state: link
+
+- name: Hard link stat
+  stat:
+    path: "{{output_dir}}/hard.txt"
+  register: hard_stat
+
+- name: Soft link stat
+  stat:
+    path: "{{output_dir}}/soft2.txt"
+  register: soft_stat
+
+- name: Check link status
+  assert:
+    that:
+      - "hard_stat.stat.exists == true"
+      - "soft_stat.stat.exists == true"