LN(1)                      OpenBSD Reference Manual                      LN(1)

NAME
     ln - make hard and symbolic links to files

SYNOPSIS
     ln [-fhns] source [target]
     ln [-fs] source ... [directory]

DESCRIPTION
     The ln 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
     copies; instead, a link ``points'' to the original copy.  There are two
     types of links; hard links and symbolic links.  How a link points to a
     file is one of the differences between a hard and symbolic link.

     The options are as follows:

     -f      Unlink any already existing file, permitting the link to occur.

     -h      If the target is a symlink to a directory, do not descend into
             it.

     -n      An alias for -h for compatibility with other operating systems.

     -s      Create a symbolic link.

     By default, ln makes ``hard'' links.  A hard link to a file is indistin-
     guishable 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 sys-
     tems.

     A symbolic link contains the name of the file to which it is linked.  The
     referenced file is used when an open(2) operation is performed on the
     link.  A stat(2) on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an
     lstat(2) must be done to obtain information about the link.  The
     readlink(2) call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link.
     Symbolic links may span file systems, refer to directories, and refer to
     non-existent files.

     Given one or two arguments, ln creates a link to an existing file source.
     If target is given, the link has that name; target may also be a directo-
     ry 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 source.

     Given more than two arguments, ln makes links in directory to all the
     named source files.  The links made will have the same name as the files
     being linked to.

     The ln utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES
     Create a symbolic link named /home/www and point it to /var/www:

           # ln -s /var/www /home/www

     Hard link /usr/local/bin/fooprog to file /usr/local/bin/fooprog-1.0:

           # ln /usr/local/bin/fooprog-1.0 /usr/local/bin/fooprog

     As an exercise, try the following commands:

           $ ls -i /bin/[
           11553 /bin/[
           $ ls -i /bin/test
           11553 /bin/test

     Note that both files have the same inode; that is, /bin/[ is essentially
     an alias for the test(1) command.  This hard link exists so test(1) may
     be invoked from shell scripts, for example, using the if [ ] construct.

     In the next example, the second call to ln removes the original foo and
     creates a replacement pointing to baz:

           $ mkdir bar baz
           $ ln -s bar foo
           $ ln -shf baz foo

     Without the -h option, this would instead leave foo pointing to bar and
     inside foo create a new symlink baz pointing to itself.  This results
     from directory-walking.

SEE ALSO
     link(2), lstat(2), readlink(2), stat(2), symlink(2), symlink(7)

STANDARDS
     The ln utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (``POSIX'')
     specification.

     The flags [-hn] are extensions to that specification.

HISTORY
     An ln utility appeared in Version 3 AT&T UNIX.

CAVEATS
     Since the source file must have its link count incremented, a hard link
     cannot be created to a file which is flagged immutable or append-only
     (see chflags(1)).

OpenBSD 4.7                    February 8, 2009                              2
