diff --git a/testsuite/hardlinks.test b/testsuite/hardlinks.test
index 68fd2701c..c02db3f41 100644
--- a/testsuite/hardlinks.test
+++ b/testsuite/hardlinks.test
@@ -81,7 +81,8 @@ diff $diffopt "$name1" "$todir" || test_fail "solo copy of name1 failed"
 # enabled (this has broken in 3.4.0 so far, so we need this test).
 rm -rf "$fromdir" "$todir"
 makepath "$fromdir/sym" "$todir"
-checkit "$RSYNC -aH '$fromdir/sym' '$todir'" "$fromdir" "$todir"
+$RSYNC -aH "$fromdir/sym" "$todir"
+diff $diffopt "$fromdir" "$todir" || test_fail "solo copy of sym failed"
 
 # The script would have aborted on error, so getting here means we've won.
 exit 0