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 fisv 48.Ar source_file 49.Op target_file 50.Nm ln 51.Op Fl fisv 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. 76The 77.Fl f 78option overrides any previous 79.Fl i 80options. 81.It Fl i 82Request confirmation before attempting to replace already existing file. 83The 84.Fl i 85option overrides any previous 86.Fl f 87options. 88.It Fl s 89Create a symbolic link. 90.It Fl v 91Cause 92.Nm 93to be verbose, showing files as they are processed. 94.El 95.Pp 96By default, 97.Nm 98makes 99.Em hard 100links. 101A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 102any changes to a file are effectively independent of the name used to reference 103the file. 104Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 105.Pp 106A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 107which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an 108.Xr open 2 109operation is performed on the link. 110A 111.Xr stat 2 112on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 113.Xr lstat 2 114must be done to obtain information about the link. 115The 116.Xr readlink 2 117call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 118Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 119.Pp 120Given one or two arguments, 121.Nm 122creates a link to an existing file 123.Ar source_file . 124If 125.Ar target_file 126is given, the link has that name; 127.Ar target_file 128may also be a directory in which to place the link; 129otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 130If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 131to the last component of 132.Ar source_file . 133.Pp 134Given more than two arguments, 135.Nm 136makes links in 137.Ar target_dir 138to all the named source files. 139The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 140.Pp 141When the utility is called as 142.Nm link , 143exactly two arguments must be supplied, 144neither of which may specify a directory. 145No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation, 146which performs a 147.Xr link 2 148operation using the two passed arguments. 149.Sh SEE ALSO 150.Xr link 2 , 151.Xr lstat 2 , 152.Xr readlink 2 , 153.Xr stat 2 , 154.Xr symlink 2 , 155.Xr symlink 7 156.Sh COMPATIBILITY 157The 158.Fl v 159and 160.Fl i 161options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 162.Sh HISTORY 163An 164.Nm 165command appeared in 166.At v1 . 167The simplified 168.Nm link 169command conforms to 170.St -susv2 . 171