ln(1)								   User Commands							     ln(1)

NAME

       ln - make hard or symbolic links to files

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/bin/ln [-fns] source_file [target]

       /usr/bin/ln [-fns] source_file... target

       /usr/xpg4/bin/ln [-fs] source_file [target]

       /usr/xpg4/bin/ln [-fs] source_file... target

DESCRIPTION

       In  the	first synopsis form, the ln utility creates a new directory entry (link) for the file specified by source_file, at the destination
       path specified by target. If target is not specified, the link is made in the current directory. This first synopsis form is  assumed  when
       the  final operand does not name an existing directory; if more than two operands are specified and the final is not an existing directory,
       an error will result.

       In the second synopsis form, the ln utility creates a new directory entry for each file specified by a source_file operand, at  a  destina-
       tion path in the existing directory named by target.

       The  ln	utility may be used to create both hard links and symbolic links. A hard link is a pointer to a file and is indistinguishable from
       the original directory entry. Any changes to a file are effective independent of the name used to reference the file. Hard  links  may  not
       span file systems and may not refer to directories.

       ln  by  default creates hard links. source_file is linked to target. If target is a directory, another file named source_file is created in
       target and linked to the original source_file.

       If target is an existing file and the -f option is not specified, ln will write a diagnostic message to standard  error,  do  nothing  more
       with the current source_file, and go on to any remaining source_files.

       A  symbolic link is an indirect pointer to a file; its directory entry  contains the name of the file to which it is linked. Symbolic links
       may span file systems and may refer to directories.

       File permissions for target may be different from those displayed with an -l listing of the ls(1) command. To display  the  permissions	of
       target, use ls -lL. See stat(2) for more information.

   /usr/bin/ln
       If  /usr/bin/ln	determines  that the mode of target forbids writing, it prints the mode (see chmod(1)), asks for a response, and reads the
       standard input for one line. If the response is affirmative, the link occurs, if permissible. Otherwise, the command exits.

   /usr/xpg4/bin/ln
       When creating a hard link, and the source file is itself a symbolic link, the target will be a hard link to the file referenced by the sym-
       bolic link, not to the symbolic link object itself (source_file).

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported for both /usr/bin/ln and /usr/xpg4/bin/ln:

       -f    Links  files  without  questioning the user, even if the mode of target forbids writing. This is the default if the standard input is
	     not a terminal.

       -s    Creates a symbolic link.

	     If the -s option is used with two arguments, target may be an existing directory or a non-existent file. If target already exists and
	     is  not  a  directory,  an  error is returned. source_file may be any path name and need not exist. If it exists, it may be a file or
	     directory and may reside on a different file system from target. If target is an existing directory, a file is created  in  directory
	     target  whose  name is source_file or the last component of source_file. This file is a symbolic link that references source_file. If
	     target does not exist, a file with name target is created and it is a symbolic link that references source_file.

	     If the -s option is used with more than two arguments, target must be an existing directory or an error will be  returned.  For  each
	     source_file,  a link is created in target whose name is the last component of source_file. Each new source_file is a symbolic link to
	     the original source_file. The files and target may reside on different file systems.

   /usr/bin/ln
       The following option is supported for /usr/bin/ln only:

       -n    If target is an existing file, writes a diagnostic message to stderr and goes on to any remaining source_files. The -f  option  over-
	     rides this option. This is the default behavior for /usr/bin/ln and /usr/xpg4/bin/ln, and is silently ignored.

OPERANDS

       The following operands are supported:

       source_file    A path name of a file to be linked. This can be either a regular or special file. If the -s option is specified, source_file
		      can also be a directory.

       target	      The path name of the new directory entry to be created, or of an existing directory in which the new directory  entries  are
		      to be created.

USAGE

       See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of ln when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       See  environ(5)	for  descriptions  of the following environment variables that affect the execution of ln: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MES-
       SAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned:

       0     All the specified files were linked successfully

       >0    An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

   /usr/bin/ln
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWcsu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |CSI			     |Enabled			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

   /usr/xpg4/bin/ln
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWxcu4			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |CSI			     |Enabled			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Standard			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       chmod(1), ls(1), stat(2), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), standards(5)

NOTES

       A symbolic link to a directory behaves differently than you might expect in certain cases. While an ls(1) command on such a  link  displays
       the files in the pointed-to directory, entering ls -l displays information about the link itself:

	 example% ln -s dir link
	 example% ls link
	 file1 file2 file3 file4
	 example% ls -l link
	 lrwxrwxrwx  1 user	       7 Jan 11 23:27 link -> dir

       When  you change to a directory (see cd(1)) through a symbolic link, using /usr/bin/sh or /usr/bin/csh, you wind up in the pointed-to loca-
       tion within the file system. This means that the parent of the new working directory is not the parent of the symbolic  link,  but  rather,
       the  parent  of the pointed-to directory. This will also happen when using cd with the -P option from /usr/bin/ksh or /usr/xpg4/bin/sh. For
       instance, in the following case, the final working directory is /usr and not /home/user/linktest.

	 example% pwd
	 /home/user/linktest
	 example% ln -s /usr/tmp symlink
	 example% cd symlink
	 example% cd ..
	 example% pwd
	 /usr

       C shell users can avoid any resulting navigation problems by using the pushd and popd built-in commands instead of cd.

SunOS 5.11							    25 Mar 2004 							     ln(1)