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 June 6, 2008 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 s Op Fl F 45.Op Fl f | iw 46.Op Fl hnv 47.Ar source_file 48.Op Ar target_file 49.Nm 50.Op Fl s Op Fl F 51.Op Fl f | iw 52.Op Fl hnv 53.Ar source_file ... 54.Ar target_dir 55.Nm link 56.Ar source_file Ar target_file 57.Sh DESCRIPTION 58The 59.Nm 60utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the 61same modes as the original file. 62It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places 63at once without using up storage for the 64.Dq copies ; 65instead, a link 66.Dq points 67to the original copy. 68There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links. 69How a link 70.Dq points 71to a file is one of the differences between a hard and symbolic link. 72.Pp 73The options are as follows: 74.Bl -tag -width flag 75.It Fl f 76If the target file already exists, 77then unlink it so that the link may occur. 78(The 79.Fl f 80option overrides any previous 81.Fl i 82and 83.Fl w 84options.) 85.It Fl F 86If the target file already exists and is a directory, then remove it 87so that the link may occur. 88The 89.Fl F 90option should be used with either 91.Fl f 92or 93.Fl i 94options. 95If none is specified, 96.Fl f 97is implied. 98The 99.Fl F 100option is a no-op unless 101.Fl s 102option is specified. 103.It Fl h 104If the 105.Ar target_file 106or 107.Ar target_dir 108is a symbolic link, do not follow it. 109This is most useful with the 110.Fl f 111option, to replace a symlink which may point to a directory. 112.It Fl i 113Cause 114.Nm 115to write a prompt to standard error if the target file exists. 116If the response from the standard input begins with the character 117.Sq Li y 118or 119.Sq Li Y , 120then unlink the target file so that the link may occur. 121Otherwise, do not attempt the link. 122(The 123.Fl i 124option overrides any previous 125.Fl f 126options.) 127.It Fl n 128Same as 129.Fl h , 130for compatibility with other 131.Nm 132implementations. 133.It Fl s 134Create a symbolic link. 135.It Fl v 136Cause 137.Nm 138to be verbose, showing files as they are processed. 139.It Fl w 140Warn if the source of a symbolic link does not currently exist. 141.El 142.Pp 143By default, 144.Nm 145makes 146.Em hard 147links. 148A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 149any changes to a file are effectively independent of the name used to reference 150the file. 151Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 152.Pp 153A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 154which it is linked. 155The referenced file is used when an 156.Xr open 2 157operation is performed on the link. 158A 159.Xr stat 2 160on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 161.Xr lstat 2 162must be done to obtain information about the link. 163The 164.Xr readlink 2 165call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 166Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 167.Pp 168Given one or two arguments, 169.Nm 170creates a link to an existing file 171.Ar source_file . 172If 173.Ar target_file 174is given, the link has that name; 175.Ar target_file 176may also be a directory in which to place the link; 177otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 178If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 179to the last component of 180.Ar source_file . 181.Pp 182Given more than two arguments, 183.Nm 184makes links in 185.Ar target_dir 186to all the named source files. 187The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 188.Pp 189When the utility is called as 190.Nm link , 191exactly two arguments must be supplied, 192neither of which may specify a directory. 193No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation, 194which performs a 195.Xr link 2 196operation using the two passed arguments. 197.Sh COMPATIBILITY 198The 199.Fl h , 200.Fl i , 201.Fl n , 202.Fl v 203and 204.Fl w 205options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 206They are provided solely for compatibility with other 207.Nm 208implementations. 209.Pp 210The 211.Fl F 212option is 213.Fx 214extention and should not be used in portable scripts. 215.Sh SEE ALSO 216.Xr link 2 , 217.Xr lstat 2 , 218.Xr readlink 2 , 219.Xr stat 2 , 220.Xr symlink 2 , 221.Xr symlink 7 222.Sh STANDARDS 223The 224.Nm 225utility conforms to 226.St -p1003.2-92 . 227.Pp 228The simplified 229.Nm link 230command conforms to 231.St -susv2 . 232.Sh HISTORY 233An 234.Nm 235command appeared in 236.At v1 . 237