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 December 30, 1993 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 fhinsv 45.Ar source_file 46.Op Ar target_file 47.Nm 48.Op Fl fhinsv 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 h 80If the 81.Ar target_file 82or 83.Ar target_dir 84is a symbolic link, do not follow it. 85This is most useful with the 86.Fl f 87option, to replace a symlink which may point to a directory. 88.It Fl i 89Cause 90.Nm 91to write a prompt to standard error if the target file exists. 92If the response from the standard input begins with the character 93.Sq Li y 94or 95.Sq Li Y , 96then unlink the target file so that the link may occur. 97Otherwise, do not attempt the link. 98(The 99.Fl i 100option overrides any previous 101.Fl f 102options.) 103.It Fl n 104Same as 105.Fl h , 106for compatibility with other 107.Nm 108implementations. 109.It Fl s 110Create a symbolic link. 111.It Fl v 112Cause 113.Nm 114to be verbose, showing files as they are processed. 115.El 116.Pp 117By default, 118.Nm 119makes 120.Em hard 121links. 122A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 123any changes to a file are effectively independent of the name used to reference 124the file. 125Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 126.Pp 127A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 128which it is linked. 129The referenced file is used when an 130.Xr open 2 131operation is performed on the link. 132A 133.Xr stat 2 134on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 135.Xr lstat 2 136must be done to obtain information about the link. 137The 138.Xr readlink 2 139call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 140Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 141.Pp 142Given one or two arguments, 143.Nm 144creates a link to an existing file 145.Ar source_file . 146If 147.Ar target_file 148is given, the link has that name; 149.Ar target_file 150may also be a directory in which to place the link; 151otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 152If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 153to the last component of 154.Ar source_file . 155.Pp 156Given more than two arguments, 157.Nm 158makes links in 159.Ar target_dir 160to all the named source files. 161The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 162.Pp 163When the utility is called as 164.Nm link , 165exactly two arguments must be supplied, 166neither of which may specify a directory. 167No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation, 168which performs a 169.Xr link 2 170operation using the two passed arguments. 171.Sh COMPATIBILITY 172The 173.Fl h , 174.Fl i , 175.Fl n 176and 177.Fl v 178options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 179They are provided solely for compatibility with other 180.Nm 181implementations. 182.Sh SEE ALSO 183.Xr link 2 , 184.Xr lstat 2 , 185.Xr readlink 2 , 186.Xr stat 2 , 187.Xr symlink 2 , 188.Xr symlink 7 189.Sh STANDARDS 190The 191.Nm 192utility conforms to 193.St -p1003.2-92 . 194.Pp 195The simplified 196.Nm link 197command conforms to 198.St -susv2 . 199.Sh HISTORY 200An 201.Nm 202command appeared in 203.At v1 . 204