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.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% 8.\" 9.\" @(#)ln.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93 10.\" 11.Dd 12.Dt LN 1 13.Os BSD 4 14.Sh NAME 15.Nm ln 16.Nd make links 17.Sh SYNOPSIS 18.Nm ln 19.Op Fl fs 20.Ar source_file 21.Op target_file 22.Nm ln 23.Op Fl fs 24.Ar source_file ... 25.Op target_dir 26.Sh DESCRIPTION 27The 28.Nm ln 29utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the 30same modes as the original file. 31It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places 32at once without using up storage for the 33.Dq copies ; 34instead, a link 35.Dq points 36to the original copy. 37There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links. 38How a link 39.Dq points 40to a file is one of the differences between a hard or symbolic link. 41.Pp 42The options are as follows: 43.Bl -tag -width flag 44.It Fl f 45Unlink any already existing file, permitting the link to occur. 46.It Fl s 47Create a symbolic link. 48.El 49.Pp 50By default 51.Nm ln 52makes 53.Em hard 54links. 55A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; 56any changes to a file are effective independent of the name used to reference 57the file. 58Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems. 59.Pp 60A symbolic link contains the name of the file to 61which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an 62.Xr open 2 63operation is performed on the link. 64A 65.Xr stat 2 66on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an 67.Xr lstat 2 68must be done to obtain information about the link. 69The 70.Xr readlink 2 71call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. 72Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories. 73.Pp 74Given one or two arguments, 75.Nm ln 76creates a link to an existing file 77.Ar source_file . 78If 79.Ar target_file 80is given, the link has that name; 81.Ar target_file 82may also be a directory in which to place the link; 83otherwise it is placed in the current directory. 84If only the directory is specified, the link will be made 85to the last component of 86.Ar source_file . 87.Pp 88Given more than two arguments, 89.Nm ln 90makes links in 91.Ar target_dir 92to all the named source files. 93The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. 94.Sh SEE ALSO 95.Xr link 2 , 96.Xr lstat 2 , 97.Xr readlink 2 , 98.Xr stat 2 , 99.Xr symlink 2 , 100.Xr symlink 7 101.Sh HISTORY 102A 103.Nm ln 104command appeared in 105.At v6 . 106