ln - make links between files

NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION AUTHOR REPORTING BUGS COPYRIGHT SEE ALSO

SYNOPSIS

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.