NAME¶
ln - make links between files
SYNOPSIS¶
ln [
OPTION]... [
-T]
TARGET LINK_NAME (1st form)
ln [
OPTION]...
TARGET (2nd form)
ln [
OPTION]...
TARGET...
DIRECTORY (3rd form)
ln [
OPTION]...
-t DIRECTORY TARGET...
(4th form)
DESCRIPTION¶
In the 1st form, create a link to TARGET with the name LINK_NAME. In the 2nd
form, create a link to TARGET in the current directory. In the 3rd and 4th
forms, create links to each TARGET in DIRECTORY. Create hard links by default,
symbolic links with
--symbolic. When creating hard links, each TARGET
must exist. Symbolic links can hold arbitrary text; if later resolved, a
relative link is interpreted in relation to its parent directory.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
- --backup[=CONTROL]
- make a backup of each existing destination file
- -b
- like --backup but does not accept an argument
- -d, -F, --directory
- allow the superuser to attempt to hard link directories
(note: will probably fail due to system restrictions, even for the
superuser)
- -f, --force
- remove existing destination files
- -i, --interactive
- prompt whether to remove destinations
- -L, --logical
- make hard links to symbolic link references
- -n, --no-dereference
- treat destination that is a symlink to a directory as if it
were a normal file
- -P, --physical
- make hard links directly to symbolic links
- -s, --symbolic
- make symbolic links instead of hard links
- -S, --suffix=SUFFIX
- override the usual backup suffix
- -t, --target-directory=DIRECTORY
- specify the DIRECTORY in which to create the links
- -T, --no-target-directory
- treat LINK_NAME as a normal file
- -v, --verbose
- print name of each linked file
- --help
- display this help and exit
- --version
- output version information and exit
The backup suffix is `~', unless set with
--suffix or
SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX. The version control method may be selected via the
--backup option or through the VERSION_CONTROL environment variable.
Here are the values:
Using
-s ignores
-L and
-P. Otherwise, the last option
specified controls behavior when the source is a symbolic link, defaulting to
-P.
- none, off
- never make backups (even if --backup is given)
- numbered, t
- make numbered backups
- existing, nil
- numbered if numbered backups exist, simple otherwise
- simple, never
- always make simple backups
AUTHOR¶
Written by Mike Parker and David MacKenzie.
REPORTING BUGS¶
Report ln bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <
http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <
http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report ln translation bugs to <
http://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL
version 3 or later <
http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO
WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO¶
link(2),
symlink(2)
The full documentation for
ln is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the
info and
ln programs are properly installed at your site, the
command
- info coreutils 'ln invocation'
should give you access to the complete manual.