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@(#)ln.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93
$Id: ln.1,v 1.6 1998/05/15 06:19:02 charnier Exp $
.Dd December 30, 1993 .Dt LN 1 .Os BSD 4 .Sh NAME .Nm ln .Nd make links .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm ln .Op Fl fs .Ar source_file .Op target_file .Nm ln .Op Fl fs .Ar source_file ... .Op target_dir .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the same modes as the original file. It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places at once without using up storage for the .Dq copies ; instead, a link .Dq points to the original copy. There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links. How a link .Dq points to a file is one of the differences between a hard and symbolic link.
p The options are as follows: l -tag -width flag t Fl f Unlink any already existing file, permitting the link to occur. t Fl s Create a symbolic link. .El
p By default, .Nm makes .Em hard links. A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry; any changes to a file are effectively independent of the name used to reference the file. Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems.
p A symbolic link contains the name of the file to which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an .Xr open 2 operation is performed on the link. A .Xr stat 2 on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an .Xr lstat 2 must be done to obtain information about the link. The .Xr readlink 2 call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link. Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories.
p Given one or two arguments, .Nm creates a link to an existing file .Ar source_file . If .Ar target_file is given, the link has that name; .Ar target_file 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 will be made to the last component of .Ar source_file .
p Given more than two arguments, .Nm makes links in .Ar target_dir to all the named source files. The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr link 2 , .Xr lstat 2 , .Xr readlink 2 , .Xr stat 2 , .Xr symlink 2 , .Xr symlink 7 .Sh HISTORY An .Nm command appeared in .At v1 .