ln(1)              UNIX System V(BSD Compatibility Package)               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 argument 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.


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            example% pwd
            /home/user/linktest
            example% /usr/ucb/ln -s /var/tmp symlink
            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


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      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
            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 directory:
            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









































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