.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided .\" that: (1) source distributions retain this entire copyright notice and .\" comment, and (2) distributions including binaries display the following .\" acknowledgement: ``This product includes software developed by the .\" University of California, Berkeley and its contributors'' in the .\" documentation or other materials provided with the distribution and in .\" all advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software. .\" Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors may .\" be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without .\" specific prior written permission. .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED .\" WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. .\" .\" @(#)ln.1 6.5 (Berkeley) 7/24/90 .\" .Dd July 24, 1990 .Dt LN 1 .Os BSD 4 .Sh NAME .Nm ln .Nd make links .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm ln .Op Fl s .Ar source_file .Op target_file .Nm ln .Op Fl s .Ar source_file ... .Op target_dir .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm ln utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which inherits the same modes as the orginal file. It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places at once - without the `copies'; instead, a link `points' to the original copy. There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links. How a link `points' to a file is one of the differences between a hard or symbolic link. .Pp Option available: .Tw Ds .Tp Fl s Create a symbolic link. .Tp .Pp By default .Nm ln makes .Em hard links. A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; any changes to a file are effective independent of the name used to reference the file. Hard links may not refer to directories (unless the proper incantations are supplied) and may not span file systems. .Pp A symbolic link contains the name of the file to which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an .Xr open 2 operation is performed on the link. A .Xr stat 2 on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an .Xr lstat 2 must be done to obtain information about the link. The .Xr readlink 2 call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. .Pp Given one or two arguments, .Nm ln creates a link to an existing file .Ar source_file . If .Ar target_file is given, the link has that name; .Ar target_file may also be a directory in which to place the link; otherwise it is placed in the current directory. If only the directory is specified, the link will be made to the last component of .Ar source_file . .Pp Given more than two arguments, .Nm ln makes links in .Ar target_dir to all the named source files. The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr rm 1 , .Xr cp 1 , .Xr mv 1 , .Xr link 2 , .Xr readlink 2 , .Xr stat 2 , .Xr symlink 2 .Sh HISTORY A .Nm ln command appeared in Version 6 AT&T Unix.