ln(1)ln(1)Nameln - link to a file
Syntaxln [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -s ] name1 [name2]
ln [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -s ] name ... directory
Description
A link is a directory entry referring to a file. A file, together with
its size and all its protection information may have several links to
it. There are two kinds of links: hard links and symbolic links.
By default makes hard links. A hard link to a file is indistinguish‐
able from the original directory entry. Any changes to a file are
effective independent of the name used to reference the file. Hard
links may not span file systems and may not refer to directories.
Given one or two arguments, creates a link to an existing file name1.
If name2 is given, the link has that name. The name2 may also be a
directory in which to place the link. Otherwise it is placed in the
current directory. If only the directory is specified, the link is
made to the last component of name1.
Given more than two arguments, makes links to all the named files in
the named directory. The links made have the same name as the files
being linked to.
Options-f Forces existing destination pathnames to be removed before linking
without prompting for confirmation.
-i Write a prompt to standard output requesting information for each
link that would overwrite an existing file. If the response from
standard input is affirmative, and if permissions allow, the link
is done. The -i option has this effect even if the standard input
is not a terminal.
-s Creates a symbolic link.
A symbolic link contains the name of the file to which it is
linked. The referenced file is used when an operation is per‐
formed on the link. A on a symbolic link returns the linked-to
file. An must be done to obtain information about the link. The
call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. Sym‐
bolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories.
The file access mode for a symbolic link in a local file system is
that of the current value of The file access mode for a symbolic
link in an NFS-mounted file system is 777. In either case, the
system ignores the file access modes of the symbolic link and the
linked-to file always behaves as defined by its file access mode.
See Alsocp(1), mv(1), rm(1), link(2), readlink(2), stat(2), symlink(2)ln(1)