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LN

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: September 2017
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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. 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 (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: 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: create symbolic 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: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report ln translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2017 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.