Man page - ln(1)

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Manual

LN

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
AUTHOR
REPORTING BUGS
SEE ALSO

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/>