diff --git a/.npmrc b/.npmrc
index 1a99418bf03..f4be609b875 100644
--- a/.npmrc
+++ b/.npmrc
@@ -1 +1,7 @@
 strict-dep-builds=false
+# Use hardlinks when populating node_modules instead of clone/copyfile.
+# pnpm's default "auto" mode ends up using copy_file_range which fails on
+# ZFS (https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/issues/7024) and breaks `docker
+# compose build` on hosts with a ZFS root (#7342). Hardlinks are fast,
+# save disk, and work on every filesystem Etherpad supports.
+package-import-method=hardlink