Convert symlinks to hard links in a dir

symlinks->hardlinks

#!/bin/bash
# For recursive operation, I saved the script below to this location: "/usr/local/bin/symtohard". 
# Any directory in your $PATH will work just fine. After putting it there, make sure to run:
#
# chmod +x /usr/local/bin/symtohard
#
# Converts all symbolic links in a directory to hard links. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1508728 for any updates/problems.
#
# Run via cmd below without []
#
# [find /directory_with_syms -type l -exec dirname '{}' \; | sort | uniq | xargs -L 1 -I {} symtohard "{}"]
#
#
if [ -d "$1" ] ; then
    echo "About to convert all symlinks in '$1' "
#    if [ "$confirm" == "y" ]; then
        cd "$1" &&
        FOLDER="*"
        for file in $FOLDER
        do
            if [ -L "$file" ]; then
                target=$(readlink "$file")
                echo "Converting link to $file"
                mv "$file" "$file.old" &&
                ln "$target" "$file" &&
                rm "$file.old"
            else
                echo "$file not a symlink, skipping"
            fi
        done
#    else
#        echo "Exiting. No changes made."
#    fi

else
    echo "$1 is not a directory, exiting."
fi
exit

The real trick is converting back to a symlink again... About the most efficient way I've found involves using rsync...

Even simplier solution from http://superuser.com/questions/560597/convert-symlinks-to-hard-links

find -type l -exec bash -c 'ln -vf "$(readlink -m "$0")" "$0"' {} ;