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.\" $Id$ 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 fs 47.Ar source_file 48.Op target_file 49.Nm ln 50.Op Fl fs 51.Ar source_file ... 52.Op target_dir 53.Sh DESCRIPTION 54The 55.Nm ln 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 or 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.El 76.Pp 77By default 78.Nm ln 79makes 80.Em hard 81links. 82A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 83any changes to a file are effective independent of the name used to reference 84the file. 85Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 86.Pp 87A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 88which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an 89.Xr open 2 90operation is performed on the link. 91A 92.Xr stat 2 93on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 94.Xr lstat 2 95must be done to obtain information about the link. 96The 97.Xr readlink 2 98call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 99Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 100.Pp 101Given one or two arguments, 102.Nm ln 103creates a link to an existing file 104.Ar source_file . 105If 106.Ar target_file 107is given, the link has that name; 108.Ar target_file 109may also be a directory in which to place the link; 110otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 111If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 112to the last component of 113.Ar source_file . 114.Pp 115Given more than two arguments, 116.Nm ln 117makes links in 118.Ar target_dir 119to all the named source files. 120The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 121.Sh SEE ALSO 122.Xr link 2 , 123.Xr lstat 2 , 124.Xr readlink 2 , 125.Xr stat 2 , 126.Xr symlink 2 , 127.Xr symlink 7 128.Sh HISTORY 129A 130.Nm ln 131command appeared in 132.At v1 . 133