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.Nm link 44.Nd make links 45.Sh SYNOPSIS 46.Nm ln 47.Op Fl fsv 48.Ar source_file 49.Op target_file 50.Nm ln 51.Op Fl fsv 52.Ar source_file ... 53.Op target_dir 54.Nm link 55.Ar source_file Ar target_file 56.Sh DESCRIPTION 57The 58.Nm 59utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the 60same modes as the original file. 61It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places 62at once without using up storage for the 63.Dq copies ; 64instead, a link 65.Dq points 66to the original copy. 67There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links. 68How a link 69.Dq points 70to a file is one of the differences between a hard and symbolic link. 71.Pp 72The options are as follows: 73.Bl -tag -width flag 74.It Fl f 75Unlink any already existing file, permitting the link to occur. 76.It Fl s 77Create a symbolic link. 78.It Fl v 79Cause 80.Nm 81to be verbose, showing files as they are processed. 82.El 83.Pp 84By default, 85.Nm 86makes 87.Em hard 88links. 89A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 90any changes to a file are effectively independent of the name used to reference 91the file. 92Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 93.Pp 94A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 95which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an 96.Xr open 2 97operation is performed on the link. 98A 99.Xr stat 2 100on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 101.Xr lstat 2 102must be done to obtain information about the link. 103The 104.Xr readlink 2 105call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 106Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 107.Pp 108Given one or two arguments, 109.Nm 110creates a link to an existing file 111.Ar source_file . 112If 113.Ar target_file 114is given, the link has that name; 115.Ar target_file 116may also be a directory in which to place the link; 117otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 118If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 119to the last component of 120.Ar source_file . 121.Pp 122Given more than two arguments, 123.Nm 124makes links in 125.Ar target_dir 126to all the named source files. 127The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 128.Pp 129When the utility is called as 130.Nm link , 131exactly two arguments must be supplied, 132neither of which may specify a directory. 133No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation, 134which simply performs a 135.Xr link 2 136operation using the two passed arguments. 137.Sh SEE ALSO 138.Xr link 2 , 139.Xr lstat 2 , 140.Xr readlink 2 , 141.Xr stat 2 , 142.Xr symlink 2 , 143.Xr symlink 7 144.Sh COMPATIBILITY 145The 146.Fl v 147option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended. 148.Sh HISTORY 149An 150.Nm 151command appeared in 152.At v1 . 153The simplified 154.Nm link 155command conforms to 156.St -susv2 . 157