[Feature request]: Separate Soft and Hard links in file resource

[jstraw]

Use Case

There are instances where software refuses to traverse a symbolic (soft) link, and a hard link would work better. Right now that would require an exec with a creates, but that won't fix itself if changed later.

  # Manage a hardlink for the downloads directory so that it can be presented
  # both Nginx and rsync. The hardlink is need so that it still works from
  # rsync's chroot when /var/mirror/artifacts is excluded
  exec { 'hardlink-downloads':
    command => 'cp -r --link /var/mirror/artifacts/downloads /var/mirror/downloads',
    path    => '/usr/bin:/bin',
    creates => '/var/mirror/downloads';
  }

Describe the solution you would like

In the file resource I'd like to suggest we leave ensure => link as soft/symbolic link, but make it an alias to soft_link and then add a hard_link (we could also use soft and hard, but that seems more difficult to follow.)

Both would use the existing style of the link ensure.

file { '/etc/inetd.conf':
  ensure => soft_link,
  target => '/etc/inet/inetd.conf',
}

file { '/var/mirror/downloads':
  ensure => hard_link,
  target => '/var/mirror/artifacts/downloads',
}

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

No response

[mphilipps]

file { '/var/mirror/downloads':
  ensure => hard_link,
  target => '/var/mirror/artifacts/downloads',
}

I would expect that this creates a hard link to the directory, something most OS don't support. It copying directories and hard linking files within feels unintuitive.

In general I feel like file resources aren't ideal for managing hard links.