1 .\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE! It was generated by help2man 1.47.3.
2 .TH LN "1" "January 2016" "GNU coreutils 8.25" "User Commands"
4 ln \- make links between files
7 [\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... [\fI\,-T\/\fR] \fI\,TARGET LINK_NAME (1st form)\/\fR
10 [\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... \fI\,TARGET (2nd form)\/\fR
13 [\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... \fI\,TARGET\/\fR... \fI\,DIRECTORY (3rd form)\/\fR
16 [\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... \fI\,-t DIRECTORY TARGET\/\fR... \fI\,(4th form)\/\fR
18 .\" Add any additional description here
20 In the 1st form, create a link to TARGET with the name LINK_NAME.
21 In the 2nd form, create a link to TARGET in the current directory.
22 In the 3rd and 4th forms, create links to each TARGET in DIRECTORY.
23 Create hard links by default, symbolic links with \fB\-\-symbolic\fR.
24 By default, each destination (name of new link) should not already exist.
25 When creating hard links, each TARGET must exist. Symbolic links
26 can hold arbitrary text; if later resolved, a relative link is
27 interpreted in relation to its parent directory.
29 Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
31 \fB\-\-backup\fR[=\fI\,CONTROL\/\fR]
32 make a backup of each existing destination file
35 like \fB\-\-backup\fR but does not accept an argument
37 \fB\-d\fR, \fB\-F\fR, \fB\-\-directory\fR
38 allow the superuser to attempt to hard link
39 directories (note: will probably fail due to
40 system restrictions, even for the superuser)
42 \fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-force\fR
43 remove existing destination files
45 \fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-interactive\fR
46 prompt whether to remove destinations
48 \fB\-L\fR, \fB\-\-logical\fR
49 dereference TARGETs that are symbolic links
51 \fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-no\-dereference\fR
52 treat LINK_NAME as a normal file if
53 it is a symbolic link to a directory
55 \fB\-P\fR, \fB\-\-physical\fR
56 make hard links directly to symbolic links
58 \fB\-r\fR, \fB\-\-relative\fR
59 create symbolic links relative to link location
61 \fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-symbolic\fR
62 make symbolic links instead of hard links
64 \fB\-S\fR, \fB\-\-suffix\fR=\fI\,SUFFIX\/\fR
65 override the usual backup suffix
67 \fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-target\-directory\fR=\fI\,DIRECTORY\/\fR
68 specify the DIRECTORY in which to create
71 \fB\-T\fR, \fB\-\-no\-target\-directory\fR
72 treat LINK_NAME as a normal file always
74 \fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
75 print name of each linked file
78 display this help and exit
81 output version information and exit
83 The backup suffix is '~', unless set with \fB\-\-suffix\fR or SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX.
84 The version control method may be selected via the \fB\-\-backup\fR option or through
85 the VERSION_CONTROL environment variable. Here are the values:
88 never make backups (even if \fB\-\-backup\fR is given)
94 numbered if numbered backups exist, simple otherwise
97 always make simple backups
99 Using \fB\-s\fR ignores \fB\-L\fR and \fB\-P\fR. Otherwise, the last option specified controls
100 behavior when a TARGET is a symbolic link, defaulting to \fB\-P\fR.
102 Written by Mike Parker and David MacKenzie.
104 GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
106 Report ln translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>
108 Copyright \(co 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
109 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
111 This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
112 There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
117 Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ln>
119 or available locally via: info \(aq(coreutils) ln invocation\(aq