[BUG] fallback behaviour when hard links aren't supported

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

Running make test-only for nodejs, npm fails with EPERM, apparently from trying to create a hard link, but the file system has no support for hard links.

Log file: https://gist.github.com/jessicah/32af57e465f6f4a340f79117863f756e

Expected Behavior

Fallback behaviour to use symlinks for filesystems without hard links. Not sure whether this should be here in npm, or if a workaround should be done in nodejs itself.

Steps To Reproduce

For building nodejs on Haiku:

pkgman install devel:libcares devel:libexecinfo devel:libnghttp2 devel:libssl devel:libuv devel:libbrotli cmd:ninja
./configure --with-intl=none --dest-os=haiku --without-npm --verbose --prefix=~/config/non-packaged --shared-cares --shared-libuv --shared-nghttp2 --shared-openssl --shared-zlib --shared-brotli
make
make test-only

Example of ln failing:

ln foo bar
# ln: failed to create hard link 'bar' => 'foo': Operation not supported (EPERM)

Environment

• npm: 8.19.2
• Node.js: 16.18.1 + patches
• OS Name: Haiku x86_64 (nightly)
• System Model Name: Virtual Box
• npm config: N/A

Start by reproducing the failure with the Haiku build commands and make test-only, then inspect the log to locate the hard-link operation in npm's test path. Trace how the npm CLI handles link creation and verify the fallback behavior on a filesystem without hard-link support. Done means the test command succeeds using symlinks where hard links are unavailable.