ln.1 (2010 09)

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ln(1) ln(1)

NAME

ln - link ﬁles and directories

SYNOPSIS

ln [-f][-i

][-s] ﬁle1 new_ﬁle

ln [-f][-i

][-s] ﬁle1 [ﬁle2]... dest_directory

ln [-f][-i

][-s] directory1 [directory2 ]... dest_directory

DESCRIPTION

The

ln command links:

• ﬁle1 to a new or existing new_ﬁle ,

• ﬁle1 to a new or existing ﬁle named ﬁle1 in existing dest_directory,

• ﬁle1, ﬁle2 , ... to new or existing ﬁles of the same name in existing dest_directory,

• directory1 , directory2 , ... to new directories of the same name in existing dest_directory,

• or it creates symbolic links between ﬁles or between directories.

If links are to dest_directory, corresponding ﬁle or directory names in that directory are linked to ﬁle1,

ﬁle2, ..., or directory1 , directory2 , ..., etc., as appropriate. If two or more existing ﬁles or directories

(excluding destination ﬁle name new_ﬁle ) are speciﬁed, the destination must be a directory. If new_ﬁle

already exists as a regular ﬁle (or link to another ﬁle), its contents (or the existing link) and its ACL are

destroyed only if the

-f option is speciﬁed. The ACL on the new_ﬁle after the link is the same as that of

the source_ﬁle ﬁle.

If the

-f and -i options are speciﬁed and the link being created is the name of an existing link or ordi-

nary ﬁle and the access permissions of the ﬁle forbid writing, ln asks permission to overwrite the ﬁle. If

the access permissions of the directory forbid writing, ln aborts and returns with the error message:

cannot unlink new_ﬁle

(even if the ﬁle is an ordinary ﬁle and not a link to another ﬁle). When asking for permission to overwrite

an existing ﬁle or link,

ln prints the mode (see chmod(2) and Access Control Lists below), followed by the

ﬁrst letters of the words

yes and no in the current native language, prompting for a response, and read-

ing one line from the standard input. If the response is afﬁrmative and is permissible, the operation

occurs; if not, the command proceeds to the next source ﬁle, if any.

Hard links are created with the same ownerships and permissions as the ﬁle or directory to which they

are linked. If ownership or permissions are changed on a link or ﬁle, the same changes appear on

corresponding hard links. The

command does not permit hard links to a directory.

Symbolic links are created with the ownership of the creator and the permissions are of the creator’s

current umask. Once created, the symbolic link ownership and permissions will not change, since the

mode and ownership of the symbolic link is ignored by the system.

If ﬁle1 is a ﬁle and new_ﬁle is a link to an existing ﬁle or an existing ﬁle with other links, new_ﬁle is

disassociated from the existing ﬁle and links and linked to ﬁle1. When

ln creates a link to a new or

existing ﬁle name, ownerships and permissions are always identical to those for the ﬁle to which it is

linked. If chown, chgrp,orchmod is used to change ownership or permissions of a ﬁle or link, the

change applies to the ﬁle and all associated links. The last modiﬁcation time and last access time of the

ﬁle and all associated links are identical (see chown(1) and chmod(1)).

For a discussion of symbolic links, see symlink (4).

Options

The

ln command recognizes the following options:

-f Force existing destination path names to be removed to allow the link.

-i Write a prompt to the standard error output requesting conﬁrmation for each link that

would overwrite an existing ﬁle. This option takes effect only if used in conjunction with

the -f option.

-s Cause ln to create symbolic links instead of the usual hard links. A symbolic link contains

the name of the ﬁle to which it is linked. The referenced ﬁle is used when an open()

operation is performed on the link (see open (2)). A stat() on a symbolic link returns the

linked-to ﬁle; an lstat() must be performed to obtain information about the link (see

HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1

Summary of content (2 pages)

PAGE 1
ln(1) ln(1) NAME ln - link files and directories SYNOPSIS ln [-f] [-i] [-s] file1 new_file ln [-f] [-i] [-s] file1 [file2 ]... dest_directory ln [-f] [-i] [-s] directory1 [directory2 ]... dest_directory DESCRIPTION The ln command links: • file1 to a new or existing new_file , • file1 to a new or existing file named file1 in existing dest_directory, • file1 , file2 , ... to new or existing files of the same name in existing dest_directory, • directory1 , directory2 , ...
PAGE 2
ln(1) ln(1) stat (2)). A readlink() call can be used to read the contents of the symbolic link (see readlink (2)). Symbolic links may span file systems and refer to directories. Access Control Lists (ACLs) If optional ACL entries are associated with new_file , ln displays a plus sign (+) after the access mode when asking permission to overwrite the file.