lndir(1) [redhat man page]

LNDIR(1)						      General Commands Manual							  LNDIR(1)

NAME

       lndir - create a shadow directory of symbolic links to another directory tree

SYNOPSIS

       lndir [ -silent ] [ -ignorelinks ] [ -withrevinfo ] fromdir [ todir ]

DESCRIPTION

       The  lndir  program  makes  a  shadow  copy  todir of a directory tree fromdir, except that the shadow is not populated with real files but
       instead with symbolic links pointing at the real files in the fromdir directory tree.  This is usually useful for maintaining  source  code
       for  different  machine	architectures.	 You  create  a  shadow directory containing links to the real source, which you will have usually
       mounted from a remote machine.  You can build in the shadow tree, and the object files will be in the shadow directory,	while  the  source
       files in the shadow directory are just symlinks to the real files.

       This  scheme  has  the advantage that if you update the source, you need not propagate the change to the other architectures by hand, since
       all source in all shadow directories are symlinks to the real thing: just cd to the shadow directory and recompile away.

       The todir argument is optional and defaults to the current directory.  The fromdir argument may be relative (e.g., ../src) and is  relative
       to todir (not the current directory).

       Note that RCS, SCCS, CVS and CVS.adm directories are shadowed only if the -withrevinfo flag is specified.

       If you add files, simply run lndir again.  New files will be silently added.  Old files will be checked that they have the correct link.

       Deleting files is a more painful problem; the symlinks will just point into never never land.

       If a file in fromdir is a symbolic link, lndir will make the same link in todir rather than making a link back to the (symbolic link) entry
       in fromdir.  The -ignorelinks flag changes this behavior.

OPTIONS

       -silent
	      Normally lndir outputs the name of each subdirectory as it descends into it.  The -silent option suppresses these status messages.

       -ignorelinks
	      Causes the program to not treat symbolic links in fromdir specially.  The link created in todir will point back to the corresponding
	      (symbolic link) file in fromdir.	If the link is to a directory, this is almost certainly the wrong thing.

	      This option exists mostly to emulate the behavior the C version of lndir had in X11R6.  Its use is not recommended.

       -withrevinfo
	      Causes any RCS, SCCS, CVS and CVS.adm subdirectories to be treated as any other directory, rather than ignored.

DIAGNOSTICS

       The program displays the name of each subdirectory it enters, followed by a colon.  The -silent option suppresses these messages.

       A  warning  message is displayed if the symbolic link cannot be created.  The usual problem is that a regular file of the same name already
       exists.

       If the link already exists but doesn't point to the correct file, the program prints the link name and the location where it does point.

X Version 11							    Release 6.6 							  LNDIR(1)

Check Out this Related Man Page

ln(1)							      General Commands Manual							     ln(1)

Name
       ln - link to a file

Syntax
       ln [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -s ] name1 [name2]
       ln [ -f ] [ -i ] [ -s ] name ... directory

Description
       A  link is a directory entry referring to a file.  A file, together with its size and all its protection information may have several links
       to it.  There are two kinds of links: hard links and symbolic links.

       By default makes hard links.  A hard link to a file 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.

       Given  one or two arguments, creates a link to an existing file name1.  If name2 is given, the link has that name.  The name2 may also be a
       directory in which to place the link.  Otherwise it is placed in the current directory.	If only the directory is specified,  the  link	is
       made to the last component of name1.

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

Options
       -f   Forces existing destination pathnames to be removed before linking without prompting for confirmation.

       -i   Write a prompt to standard output requesting information for each link that would overwrite an existing file.  If  the  response  from
	    standard input is affirmative, and if permissions allow, the link is done. The -i option has this effect even if the standard input is
	    not a terminal.

       -s   Creates a symbolic link.

	    A symbolic link contains the name of the file to which it is linked.  The referenced file is used when an operation  is  performed	on
	    the  link.	 A  on a symbolic link returns the linked-to file.  An must be done to obtain information about the link.  The call may be
	    used to read the contents of a symbolic link.  Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories.

See Also
       cp(1), mv(1), rm(1), link(2), readlink(2), stat(2), symlink(2)

																	     ln(1)

Linux and UNIX Man Pages

lndir(1) [redhat man page]

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