diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index a1461159f6..d23541413d 100755
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -203,12 +203,6 @@ Export('main')
 
 main.SConsignFile(os.path.join(build_root, "sconsign"))
 
-# Default duplicate option is to use hard links, but this messes up
-# when you use emacs to edit a file in the target dir, as emacs moves
-# file to file~ then copies to file, breaking the link.  Symbolic
-# (soft) links work better.
-main.SetOption('duplicate', 'soft-copy')
-
 #
 # Set up global sticky variables... these are common to an entire build
 # tree (not specific to a particular build like X86)
diff --git a/site_scons/gem5_scons/defaults.py b/site_scons/gem5_scons/defaults.py
index e59b40f0e5..8309505b6c 100644
--- a/site_scons/gem5_scons/defaults.py
+++ b/site_scons/gem5_scons/defaults.py
@@ -71,3 +71,9 @@ def EnvDefaults(env):
     # add useful python code PYTHONPATH so it can be used by subprocesses
     # as well
     env.AppendENVPath('PYTHONPATH', extra_python_paths)
+
+    # Default duplicate option is to use hard links, but this messes up
+    # when you use emacs to edit a file in the target dir, as emacs moves
+    # file to file~ then copies to file, breaking the link.  Symbolic
+    # (soft) links work better.
+    env.SetOption('duplicate', 'soft-copy')