ln(1-ucb)               (BSD Compatibility Package)               ln(1-ucb)

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 sys-
     tems 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 sym-
     bolic link itself.

     A symbolic link to a directory behaves differently than you might
     expect in certain cases. While an ls(1) 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






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ln(1-ucb)               (BSD Compatibility Package)               ln(1-ucb)

     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
          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@



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ln(1-ucb)               (BSD Compatibility Package)               ln(1-ucb)

NOTES
     When the last argument is a directory, simple basenames should not be
     used for pathname arguments. If a basename is used, the resulting sym-
     bolic 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

SEE ALSO
     cp(1), ls(1), mv(1), rm(1), link(2), readlink(2), stat(2), symlink(2).

































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