1.\"- 2.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993 3.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 4.\" 5.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 6.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 7.\" 8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 10.\" are met: 11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 14.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 15.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" @(#)ln.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd February 14, 2006 36.Dt LN 1 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm ln , 40.Nm link 41.Nd make links 42.Sh SYNOPSIS 43.Nm 44.Op Fl Ffhinsv 45.Ar source_file 46.Op Ar target_file 47.Nm 48.Op Fl Ffhinsv 49.Ar source_file ... 50.Ar target_dir 51.Nm link 52.Ar source_file Ar target_file 53.Sh DESCRIPTION 54The 55.Nm 56utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the 57same modes as the original file. 58It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places 59at once without using up storage for the 60.Dq copies ; 61instead, a link 62.Dq points 63to the original copy. 64There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links. 65How a link 66.Dq points 67to a file is one of the differences between a hard and symbolic link. 68.Pp 69The options are as follows: 70.Bl -tag -width flag 71.It Fl f 72If the target file already exists, 73then unlink it so that the link may occur. 74(The 75.Fl f 76option overrides any previous 77.Fl i 78options.) 79.It Fl F 80If the target file already exists and is a directory, then remove it 81so that the link may occur. 82The 83.Fl F 84option should be used with either 85.Fl f 86or 87.Fl i 88options. 89If none is specified, 90.Fl f 91is implied. 92The 93.Fl F 94option is a no-op unless 95.Fl s 96option is specified. 97.It Fl h 98If the 99.Ar target_file 100or 101.Ar target_dir 102is a symbolic link, do not follow it. 103This is most useful with the 104.Fl f 105option, to replace a symlink which may point to a directory. 106.It Fl i 107Cause 108.Nm 109to write a prompt to standard error if the target file exists. 110If the response from the standard input begins with the character 111.Sq Li y 112or 113.Sq Li Y , 114then unlink the target file so that the link may occur. 115Otherwise, do not attempt the link. 116(The 117.Fl i 118option overrides any previous 119.Fl f 120options.) 121.It Fl n 122Same as 123.Fl h , 124for compatibility with other 125.Nm 126implementations. 127.It Fl s 128Create a symbolic link. 129.It Fl v 130Cause 131.Nm 132to be verbose, showing files as they are processed. 133.El 134.Pp 135By default, 136.Nm 137makes 138.Em hard 139links. 140A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 141any changes to a file are effectively independent of the name used to reference 142the file. 143Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 144.Pp 145A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 146which it is linked. 147The referenced file is used when an 148.Xr open 2 149operation is performed on the link. 150A 151.Xr stat 2 152on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 153.Xr lstat 2 154must be done to obtain information about the link. 155The 156.Xr readlink 2 157call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 158Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 159.Pp 160Given one or two arguments, 161.Nm 162creates a link to an existing file 163.Ar source_file . 164If 165.Ar target_file 166is given, the link has that name; 167.Ar target_file 168may also be a directory in which to place the link; 169otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 170If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 171to the last component of 172.Ar source_file . 173.Pp 174Given more than two arguments, 175.Nm 176makes links in 177.Ar target_dir 178to all the named source files. 179The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 180.Pp 181When the utility is called as 182.Nm link , 183exactly two arguments must be supplied, 184neither of which may specify a directory. 185No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation, 186which performs a 187.Xr link 2 188operation using the two passed arguments. 189.Sh COMPATIBILITY 190The 191.Fl h , 192.Fl i , 193.Fl n 194and 195.Fl v 196options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 197They are provided solely for compatibility with other 198.Nm 199implementations. 200.Pp 201The 202.Fl F 203option is 204.Fx 205extention and should not be used in portable scripts. 206.Sh SEE ALSO 207.Xr link 2 , 208.Xr lstat 2 , 209.Xr readlink 2 , 210.Xr stat 2 , 211.Xr symlink 2 , 212.Xr symlink 7 213.Sh STANDARDS 214The 215.Nm 216utility conforms to 217.St -p1003.2-92 . 218.Pp 219The simplified 220.Nm link 221command conforms to 222.St -susv2 . 223.Sh HISTORY 224An 225.Nm 226command appeared in 227.At v1 . 228