ln(1)                    USER COMMANDS                      ln(1)



NAME
     ln - make hard or symbolic links to files

SYNOPSIS
     /usr/ucb/ln [ -fs ] filename [ linkname ]
     /usr/ucb/ln [ -fs ] pathname...  directory

DESCRIPTION
     /usr/ucb/ln creates an additional directory entry, called  a
     link,  to  a  file or directory.  Any number of links can be
     assigned to a file.  The number of  links  does  not  affect
     other  file attributes such as size, protections, data, etc.
     filename is the name of  the  original  file  or  directory.
     linkname  is  the  new  name  to  associate with the file or
     filename.  If linkname is omitted,  the  last  component  of
     filename is used as the name of the link.  If the last argu-
     ment is the name of a directory, symbolic links are made  in
     that  directory for each pathname argument; /usr/ucb/ln uses
     the last component of each pathname as the name of each link
     in  the  named  directory.   A  hard link (the default) is a
     standard directory entry just like the  one  made  when  the
     file  was  created.  Hard links can only be made to existing
     files.  Hard links cannot be made across file systems  (disk
     partitions,  mounted  file  systems).  To remove a file, all
     hard links to it must be  removed,  including  the  name  by
     which  it  was  first  created;  removing the last hard link
     releases the inode associated with  the  file.   A  symbolic
     link,  made with the -s option, is a special directory entry
     that points to another named file.  Symbolic links can  span
     file  systems  and  point  to directories.  In fact, you can
     create a symbolic  link  that  points  to  a  file  that  is
     currently  absent  from  the  file system; removing the file
     that it points to does not affect or alter the symbolic link
     itself.   A symbolic link to a directory behaves differently
     than you might expect in certain cases.  While an ls(1V)  on
     such  a link displays the files in the pointed-to directory,
     an `ls -l' displays information about the link itself:
          example% /usr/ucb/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 cd(1) to a directory through a symbolic  link,  you
     wind  up  in the pointed-to location 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.  For instance, in the following
     case   the   final   working   directory  is  /usr  and  not
     /home/user/linktest.
          example% pwd
          /home/user/linktest
          example% /usr/ucb/ln -s /var/tmp symlink



             Last change: BSD Compatibility Package             1

ln(1)                    USER COMMANDS                      ln(1)



          example% cd symlink
          example% cd ..
          example% pwd
          /usr
     C shell user's can avoid any resulting  navigation  problems
     by using the pushd and popd built-in commands instead of cd.

OPTIONS
     -f   Force a hard link to a directory - this option is  only
          available to the super-user.

     -s   Create a symbolic link or links.

EXAMPLE
     The commands below illustrate the effects of  the  different
     forms of the /usr/ucb/ln command:

          example% /usr/ucb/ln file link
          example% ls -F file link
          file   link
          example% /usr/ucb/ln -s file symlink
          example% ls -F file symlink
          file   symlink@
          example% ls -li file link symlink
           10606 -rw-r--r--  2 user            0 Jan 12 00:06 file
           10606 -rw-r--r--  2 user            0 Jan 12 00:06 link
           10607 lrwxrwxrwx  1 user            4 Jan 12 00:06 symlink -> file
          example% /usr/ucb/ln -s nonesuch devoid
          example% ls -F devoid
          devoid@
          example% cat devoid
          devoid: No such file or directory
          example% /usr/ucb/ln -s /proto/bin/* /tmp/bin
          example% ls -F /proto/bin /tmp/bin
          /proto/bin:
          x*      y*      z*

          /tmp/bin:
          x@      y@      z@

SEE ALSO
     cp(1), ls(1), mv(1), rm(1) in the User's  Reference  Manual.
     link(2),    readlink(2),    stat(2),   symlink(2)   in   the
     Programmer's Reference Manual.

NOTES
     When the last argument  is  a  directory,  simple  basenames
     should not be used for pathname arguments.  If a basename is
     used, the resulting symbolic link points to itself:
          example% /usr/ucb/ln -s file /tmp
          example% ls -l /tmp/file
          lrwxrwxrwx  1 user            4 Jan 12 00:16 /tmp/file -> file



             Last change: BSD Compatibility Package             2

ln(1)                    USER COMMANDS                      ln(1)



          example% cat /tmp/file
          /tmp/file: Too many levels of symbolic links
     To avoid this problem, use  full  pathnames,  or  prepend  a
     reference to the PWD variable to files in the working direc-
     tory:

          example% rm /tmp/file
          example% /usr/ucb/ln -s $PWD/file /tmp
          lrwxrwxrwx  1 user
               4 Jan 12 00:16 /tmp/file -> /home/user/subdir/file













































             Last change: BSD Compatibility Package             3