Manpages - ln.1

NAME

ln - make links between files

SYNOPSIS

ln [/OPTION/]… [/-T/] TARGET LINK_NAME
ln [/OPTION/]… TARGET
ln [/OPTION/]… TARGET… DIRECTORY
ln [/OPTION/]… -t DIRECTORY TARGET…

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. By default, each destination (name of new link) should not already exist. 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 (this 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: dereference TARGETs that are symbolic links
-n, –no-dereference: treat LINK_NAME as a normal file if it is a symbolic link to a directory
-P, –physical: make hard links directly to symbolic links
-r, –relative: with -s, create links relative to link location
-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 always
-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:

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

Using -s ignores -L and -P. Otherwise, the last option specified controls behavior when a TARGET is a symbolic link, defaulting to -P.

AUTHOR

Written by Mike Parker and David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>