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: src/bin/ln/ln.1,v 1.11.2.8 2003/02/04 07:31:59 keramida Exp $ 37.\" 38.Dd December 30, 1993 39.Dt LN 1 40.Os 41.Sh NAME 42.Nm ln , 43.Nm link 44.Nd make links 45.Sh SYNOPSIS 46.Nm 47.Op Fl fhinsv 48.Ar source_file 49.Op Ar target_file 50.Nm 51.Op Fl fhinsv 52.Ar source_file ... 53.Ar 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 75If the target file already exists, 76then unlink it so that the link may occur. 77(The 78.Fl f 79option overrides any previous 80.Fl i 81options.) 82.It Fl h 83If the 84.Ar target_file 85or 86.Ar target_dir 87is a symbolic link, do not follow it. This is most useful with the 88.Fl f 89option, to replace a symlink which may point to a directory. 90.It Fl i 91Cause 92.Nm 93to write a prompt to standard error if the target file exists. 94If the response from the standard input begins with the character 95.Sq Li y 96or 97.Sq Li Y , 98then unlink the target file so that the link may occur. 99Otherwise, do not attempt the link. 100(The 101.Fl i 102option overrides any previous 103.Fl f 104options.) 105.It Fl n 106Same as 107.Fl h , 108for compatibility with other 109.Nm 110implementations. 111.It Fl s 112Create a symbolic link. 113.It Fl v 114Cause 115.Nm 116to be verbose, showing files as they are processed. 117.El 118.Pp 119By default, 120.Nm 121makes 122.Em hard 123links. 124A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 125any changes to a file are effectively independent of the name used to reference 126the file. 127Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 128.Pp 129A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 130which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an 131.Xr open 2 132operation is performed on the link. 133A 134.Xr stat 2 135on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 136.Xr lstat 2 137must be done to obtain information about the link. 138The 139.Xr readlink 2 140call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 141Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 142.Pp 143Given one or two arguments, 144.Nm 145creates a link to an existing file 146.Ar source_file . 147If 148.Ar target_file 149is given, the link has that name; 150.Ar target_file 151may also be a directory in which to place the link; 152otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 153If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 154to the last component of 155.Ar source_file . 156.Pp 157Given more than two arguments, 158.Nm 159makes links in 160.Ar target_dir 161to all the named source files. 162The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 163.Pp 164When the utility is called as 165.Nm link , 166exactly two arguments must be supplied, 167neither of which may specify a directory. 168No options may be supplied in this simple mode of operation, 169which performs a 170.Xr link 2 171operation using the two passed arguments. 172.Sh SEE ALSO 173.Xr link 2 , 174.Xr lstat 2 , 175.Xr readlink 2 , 176.Xr stat 2 , 177.Xr symlink 2 , 178.Xr symlink 7 179.Sh COMPATIBILITY 180The 181.Fl h , 182.Fl i , 183.Fl n 184and 185.Fl v 186options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 187They are provided solely for compatibility with other 188.Nm 189implementations. 190.Sh STANDARDS 191The 192.Nm 193utility conforms to 194.St -p1003.2-92 . 195.Pp 196The simplified 197.Nm link 198command conforms to 199.St -susv2 . 200.Sh HISTORY 201An 202.Nm 203command appeared in 204.At v1 . 205