1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 5.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 6.\" 7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 9.\" are met: 10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 14.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 15.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 16.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 17.\" without specific prior written permission. 18.\" 19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 29.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 30.\" 31.\" @(#)ln.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93 32.\" $FreeBSD$ 33.\" 34.Dd December 30, 1993 35.Dt LN 1 36.Os 37.Sh NAME 38.Nm ln , 39.Nm link 40.Nd make links 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Op Fl fhinsv 44.Ar source_file 45.Op Ar target_file 46.Nm 47.Op Fl fhinsv 48.Ar source_file ... 49.Ar target_dir 50.Nm link 51.Ar source_file Ar target_file 52.Sh DESCRIPTION 53The 54.Nm 55utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the 56same modes as the original file. 57It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places 58at once without using up storage for the 59.Dq copies ; 60instead, a link 61.Dq points 62to the original copy. 63There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links. 64How a link 65.Dq points 66to a file is one of the differences between a hard and symbolic link. 67.Pp 68The options are as follows: 69.Bl -tag -width flag 70.It Fl f 71If the target file already exists, 72then unlink it so that the link may occur. 73(The 74.Fl f 75option overrides any previous 76.Fl i 77options.) 78.It Fl h 79If the 80.Ar target_file 81or 82.Ar target_dir 83is a symbolic link, do not follow it. 84This is most useful with the 85.Fl f 86option, to replace a symlink which may point to a directory. 87.It Fl i 88Cause 89.Nm 90to write a prompt to standard error if the target file exists. 91If the response from the standard input begins with the character 92.Sq Li y 93or 94.Sq Li Y , 95then unlink the target file so that the link may occur. 96Otherwise, do not attempt the link. 97(The 98.Fl i 99option overrides any previous 100.Fl f 101options.) 102.It Fl n 103Same as 104.Fl h , 105for compatibility with other 106.Nm 107implementations. 108.It Fl s 109Create a symbolic link. 110.It Fl v 111Cause 112.Nm 113to be verbose, showing files as they are processed. 114.El 115.Pp 116By default, 117.Nm 118makes 119.Em hard 120links. 121A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 122any changes to a file are effectively independent of the name used to reference 123the file. 124Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 125.Pp 126A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 127which it is linked. 128The referenced file is used when an 129.Xr open 2 130operation is performed on the link. 131A 132.Xr stat 2 133on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 134.Xr lstat 2 135must be done to obtain information about the link. 136The 137.Xr readlink 2 138call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 139Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 140.Pp 141Given one or two arguments, 142.Nm 143creates a link to an existing file 144.Ar source_file . 145If 146.Ar target_file 147is given, the link has that name; 148.Ar target_file 149may also be a directory in which to place the link; 150otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 151If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 152to the last component of 153.Ar source_file . 154.Pp 155Given more than two arguments, 156.Nm 157makes links in 158.Ar target_dir 159to all the named source files. 160The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 161.Pp 162When the utility is called as 163.Nm link , 164exactly two arguments must be supplied, 165neither of which may specify a directory. 166No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation, 167which performs a 168.Xr link 2 169operation using the two passed arguments. 170.Sh SEE ALSO 171.Xr link 2 , 172.Xr lstat 2 , 173.Xr readlink 2 , 174.Xr stat 2 , 175.Xr symlink 2 , 176.Xr symlink 7 177.Sh COMPATIBILITY 178The 179.Fl h , 180.Fl i , 181.Fl n 182and 183.Fl v 184options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 185They are provided solely for compatibility with other 186.Nm 187implementations. 188.Sh STANDARDS 189The 190.Nm 191utility conforms to 192.St -p1003.2-92 . 193.Pp 194The simplified 195.Nm link 196command conforms to 197.St -susv2 . 198.Sh HISTORY 199An 200.Nm 201command appeared in 202.At v1 . 203