bpo-39950: add `pathlib.Path.hardlink_to()` method that supersedes `link_to()` (GH-18909)

The argument order of `link_to()` is reversed compared to what one may expect, so:

    a.link_to(b)

Might be expected to create *a* as a link to *b*, in fact it creates *b* as a link to *a*, making it function more like a "link from". This doesn't match `symlink_to()` nor the documentation and doesn't seem to be the original author's intent.

This PR deprecates `link_to()` and introduces `hardlink_to()`, which has the same argument order as `symlink_to()`.

2 files changed, 35 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/Lib/pathlib.py b/Lib/pathlib.py
index ebc2c02..37934c6 100644
--- a/Lib/pathlib.py
+++ b/Lib/pathlib.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import os
 import posixpath
 import re
 import sys
+import warnings
 from _collections_abc import Sequence
 from errno import EINVAL, ENOENT, ENOTDIR, EBADF, ELOOP
 from operator import attrgetter
@@ -1306,6 +1307,14 @@ class Path(PurePath):
         """
         self._accessor.symlink(target, self, target_is_directory)
 
+    def hardlink_to(self, target):
+        """
+        Make this path a hard link pointing to the same file as *target*.
+
+        Note the order of arguments (self, target) is the reverse of os.link's.
+        """
+        self._accessor.link(target, self)
+
     def link_to(self, target):
         """
         Make the target path a hard link pointing to this path.
@@ -1315,7 +1324,13 @@ class Path(PurePath):
         of arguments (target, link) is the reverse of Path.symlink_to, but
         matches that of os.link.
 
+        Deprecated since Python 3.10 and scheduled for removal in Python 3.12.
+        Use `hardlink_to()` instead.
         """
+        warnings.warn("pathlib.Path.link_to() is deprecated and is scheduled "
+                      "for removal in Python 3.12. "
+                      "Use pathlib.Path.hardlink_to() instead.",
+                      DeprecationWarning)
         self._accessor.link(self, target)
 
     # Convenience functions for querying the stat results
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_pathlib.py b/Lib/test/test_pathlib.py
index 0c89b6e..6ed08f7 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_pathlib.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_pathlib.py
@@ -1925,7 +1925,8 @@ class _BasePathTest(object):
         # linking to another path.
         q = P / 'dirA' / 'fileAA'
         try:
-            p.link_to(q)
+            with self.assertWarns(DeprecationWarning):
+                p.link_to(q)
         except PermissionError as e:
             self.skipTest('os.link(): %s' % e)
         self.assertEqual(q.stat().st_size, size)
@@ -1937,6 +1938,24 @@ class _BasePathTest(object):
         self.assertEqual(os.stat(r).st_size, size)
         self.assertTrue(q.stat)
 
+    @unittest.skipUnless(hasattr(os, "link"), "os.link() is not present")
+    def test_hardlink_to(self):
+        P = self.cls(BASE)
+        target = P / 'fileA'
+        size = target.stat().st_size
+        # linking to another path.
+        link = P / 'dirA' / 'fileAA'
+        link.hardlink_to(target)
+        self.assertEqual(link.stat().st_size, size)
+        self.assertTrue(os.path.samefile(target, link))
+        self.assertTrue(target.exists())
+        # Linking to a str of a relative path.
+        link2 = P / 'dirA' / 'fileAAA'
+        target2 = rel_join('fileA')
+        link2.hardlink_to(target2)
+        self.assertEqual(os.stat(target2).st_size, size)
+        self.assertTrue(link2.exists())
+
     @unittest.skipIf(hasattr(os, "link"), "os.link() is present")
     def test_link_to_not_implemented(self):
         P = self.cls(BASE)