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.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 16.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 17.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 18.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 19.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 20.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 21.\" without specific prior written permission. 22.\" 23.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 24.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 25.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 26.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 27.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 28.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 29.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 30.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 31.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 32.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 33.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 34.\" 35.\" @(#)ln.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93 36.\" 37.Dd December 30, 1993 38.Dt LN 1 39.Os BSD 4 40.Sh NAME 41.Nm ln 42.Nd make links 43.Sh SYNOPSIS 44.Nm ln 45.Op Fl fs 46.Ar source_file 47.Op target_file 48.Nm ln 49.Op Fl fs 50.Ar source_file ... 51.Op target_dir 52.Sh DESCRIPTION 53The 54.Nm ln 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 or symbolic link. 67.Pp 68The options are as follows: 69.Bl -tag -width flag 70.It Fl f 71Unlink any already existing file, permitting the link to occur. 72.It Fl s 73Create a symbolic link. 74.El 75.Pp 76By default 77.Nm ln 78makes 79.Em hard 80links. 81A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 82any changes to a file are effective independent of the name used to reference 83the file. 84Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 85.Pp 86A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 87which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an 88.Xr open 2 89operation is performed on the link. 90A 91.Xr stat 2 92on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 93.Xr lstat 2 94must be done to obtain information about the link. 95The 96.Xr readlink 2 97call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 98Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 99.Pp 100Given one or two arguments, 101.Nm ln 102creates a link to an existing file 103.Ar source_file . 104If 105.Ar target_file 106is given, the link has that name; 107.Ar target_file 108may also be a directory in which to place the link; 109otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 110If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 111to the last component of 112.Ar source_file . 113.Pp 114Given more than two arguments, 115.Nm ln 116makes links in 117.Ar target_dir 118to all the named source files. 119The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 120.Sh SEE ALSO 121.Xr link 2 , 122.Xr lstat 2 , 123.Xr readlink 2 , 124.Xr stat 2 , 125.Xr symlink 2 , 126.Xr symlink 7 127.Sh HISTORY 128A 129.Nm ln 130command appeared in 131.At v6 . 132