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.\" $FreeBSD$ 37.\" 38.Dd December 30, 1993 39.Dt LN 1 40.Os BSD 4 41.Sh NAME 42.Nm ln 43.Nd make links 44.Sh SYNOPSIS 45.Nm ln 46.Op Fl fsv 47.Ar source_file 48.Op target_file 49.Nm ln 50.Op Fl fsv 51.Ar source_file ... 52.Op target_dir 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 72Unlink any already existing file, permitting the link to occur. 73.It Fl s 74Create a symbolic link. 75.It Fl v 76Cause 77.Nm 78to be verbose, showing files as they are processed. 79.El 80.Pp 81By default, 82.Nm 83makes 84.Em hard 85links. 86A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 87any changes to a file are effectively independent of the name used to reference 88the file. 89Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 90.Pp 91A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 92which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an 93.Xr open 2 94operation is performed on the link. 95A 96.Xr stat 2 97on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 98.Xr lstat 2 99must be done to obtain information about the link. 100The 101.Xr readlink 2 102call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 103Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 104.Pp 105Given one or two arguments, 106.Nm 107creates a link to an existing file 108.Ar source_file . 109If 110.Ar target_file 111is given, the link has that name; 112.Ar target_file 113may also be a directory in which to place the link; 114otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 115If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 116to the last component of 117.Ar source_file . 118.Pp 119Given more than two arguments, 120.Nm 121makes links in 122.Ar target_dir 123to all the named source files. 124The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 125.Sh SEE ALSO 126.Xr link 2 , 127.Xr lstat 2 , 128.Xr readlink 2 , 129.Xr stat 2 , 130.Xr symlink 2 , 131.Xr symlink 7 132.Sh COMPATIBILITY 133The 134.Fl v 135option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended. 136.Sh HISTORY 137An 138.Nm 139command appeared in 140.At v1 . 141