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.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 16.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 17.\" without specific prior written permission. 18.\" 19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 29.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 30.\" 31.\" @(#)ln.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93 32.\" $FreeBSD$ 33.\" 34.Dd December 30, 1993 35.Dt LN 1 36.Os 37.Sh NAME 38.Nm ln , 39.Nm link 40.Nd make links 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Op Fl fhinsv 44.Ar source_file 45.Op Ar target_file 46.Nm 47.Op Fl fhinsv 48.Ar source_file ... 49.Ar target_dir 50.Nm link 51.Ar source_file Ar target_file 52.Sh DESCRIPTION 53The 54.Nm 55utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the 56same modes as the original file. 57It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places 58at once without using up storage for the 59.Dq copies ; 60instead, a link 61.Dq points 62to the original copy. 63There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links. 64How a link 65.Dq points 66to a file is one of the differences between a hard and symbolic link. 67.Pp 68The options are as follows: 69.Bl -tag -width flag 70.It Fl f 71If the target file already exists, 72then unlink it so that the link may occur. 73(The 74.Fl f 75option overrides any previous 76.Fl i 77options.) 78.It Fl h 79If the 80.Ar target_file 81or 82.Ar target_dir 83is a symbolic link, do not follow it. This is most useful with the 84.Fl f 85option, to replace a symlink which may point to a directory. 86.It Fl i 87Cause 88.Nm 89to write a prompt to standard error if the target file exists. 90If the response from the standard input begins with the character 91.Sq Li y 92or 93.Sq Li Y , 94then unlink the target file so that the link may occur. 95Otherwise, do not attempt the link. 96(The 97.Fl i 98option overrides any previous 99.Fl f 100options.) 101.It Fl n 102Same as 103.Fl h , 104for compatibility with other 105.Nm 106implementations. 107.It Fl s 108Create a symbolic link. 109.It Fl v 110Cause 111.Nm 112to be verbose, showing files as they are processed. 113.El 114.Pp 115By default, 116.Nm 117makes 118.Em hard 119links. 120A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 121any changes to a file are effectively independent of the name used to reference 122the file. 123Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 124.Pp 125A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 126which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an 127.Xr open 2 128operation is performed on the link. 129A 130.Xr stat 2 131on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 132.Xr lstat 2 133must be done to obtain information about the link. 134The 135.Xr readlink 2 136call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 137Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 138.Pp 139Given one or two arguments, 140.Nm 141creates a link to an existing file 142.Ar source_file . 143If 144.Ar target_file 145is given, the link has that name; 146.Ar target_file 147may also be a directory in which to place the link; 148otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 149If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 150to the last component of 151.Ar source_file . 152.Pp 153Given more than two arguments, 154.Nm 155makes links in 156.Ar target_dir 157to all the named source files. 158The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 159.Pp 160When the utility is called as 161.Nm link , 162exactly two arguments must be supplied, 163neither of which may specify a directory. 164No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation, 165which performs a 166.Xr link 2 167operation using the two passed arguments. 168.Sh SEE ALSO 169.Xr link 2 , 170.Xr lstat 2 , 171.Xr readlink 2 , 172.Xr stat 2 , 173.Xr symlink 2 , 174.Xr symlink 7 175.Sh COMPATIBILITY 176The 177.Fl h , 178.Fl i , 179.Fl n 180and 181.Fl v 182options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 183They are provided solely for compatibility with other 184.Nm 185implementations. 186.Sh STANDARDS 187The 188.Nm 189utility conforms to 190.St -p1003.2-92 . 191.Pp 192The simplified 193.Nm link 194command conforms to 195.St -susv2 . 196.Sh HISTORY 197An 198.Nm 199command appeared in 200.At v1 . 201