Man1 - ln.1

ln - make links between files

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

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

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.

Written by Mike Parker and David MacKenzie.

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

Copyright © 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later https://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.

link(2), symlink(2)

Full documentation https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ln
or available locally via: info ’(coreutils) ln invocation’