diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index e9111c6f..3779ef01 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -34,8 +34,9 @@ SnapRAID HISTORY
    build time. When not specified, the existing runtime discovery
    behaviour is preserved. Primarily intended for NixOS and other
    non-FHS systems.
- * Added --enable-symlink-tools configure option to allow the validation
-   logic to accept symbolic links for the specified --with-* paths.
+ * Added --enable-symlink-tools and --enable-hardlink-tools configure
+   options to allow the validation logic to accept symbolic and hard
+   links for the specified --with-* paths.
 
 14.6 2026/06
 ============
diff --git a/cmdline/unix.c b/cmdline/unix.c
index 910216c4..f4e6253d 100644
--- a/cmdline/unix.c
+++ b/cmdline/unix.c
@@ -262,12 +262,14 @@ static int verify_executable(const char* exec_path, char* resolved_path)
 		return -1;
 	}
 
+#if !HAVE_HARDLINK_TOOLS
 	/* verify the file has not been hardlinked multiple times */
 	if (st.st_nlink > 1) {
 		log_error(EINVAL, "File %s has multiple hard links", resolved_path);
 		close(fd);
 		return -1;
 	}
+#endif
 
 	return fd;
 }
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 2c1da3e5..598fbcc1 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -406,6 +406,15 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE([symlink-tools],
 		])
 	])
 
+# Enable support for hardlinked tool paths
+AC_ARG_ENABLE([hardlink-tools],
+	[AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-hardlink-tools], [allow paths specified with --with-* options to be hard links])],
+	[
+		AS_IF([test "x$enableval" = "xyes"], [
+			AC_DEFINE([HAVE_HARDLINK_TOOLS], [1], [Define to 1 if paths specified with --with-* options are allowed to be hardlinks.])
+		])
+	])
+
 AC_ARG_VAR([TESTENV], [Test environment])
 AC_ARG_VAR([FAILENV], [Test environment for failing tests])
 AC_ARG_VAR([TESTENV_SSE2], [Test environment for SSE2])