## NAME

ln - make links between files

## SYNOPSIS

ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME (1st form)
ln [OPTION]... TARGET (2nd form)
ln [OPTION]... TARGET... DIRECTORY (3rd form)
ln [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY TARGET... (4th form)

## DESCRIPTION

In the 1st form, create a link to TARGET with the name LINK_NAME. In the 2nd form, create a link to TARGET in the current directory. In the 3rd and 4th forms, create links to each TARGET in DIRECTORY. Create hard links by default, symbolic links with --symbolic. By default, each destination (name of new link) should not already exist. When creating hard links, each TARGET must exist. Symbolic links can hold arbitrary text; if later resolved, a relative link is interpreted in relation to its parent directory.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

--backup[=CONTROL] make a backup of each existing destination file

-b like --backup but does not accept an argument

-d, -F, --directory allow the superuser to attempt to hard link directories (note: will probably fail due to system restrictions, even for the superuser)

-f, --force remove existing destination files

-i, --interactive prompt whether to remove destinations

-L, --logical dereference TARGETs that are symbolic links

-n, --no-dereference treat LINK_NAME as a normal file if it is a symbolic link to a directory

-P, --physical make hard links directly to symbolic links

-r, --relative create symbolic links relative to link location

-s, --symbolic make symbolic links instead of hard links

-S, --suffix=SUFFIX override the usual backup suffix

-t, --target-directory=DIRECTORY specify the DIRECTORY in which to create the links

-T, --no-target-directory treat LINK_NAME as a normal file always

-v, --verbose print name of each linked file

--help display this help and exit

--version output version information and exit

The backup suffix is '~', unless set with --suffix or SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX. The version control method may be selected via the --backup option or through the VERSION_CONTROL environment variable. Here are the values:

none, off never make backups (even if --backup is given)

numbered, t make numbered backups

existing, nil numbered if numbered backups exist, simple otherwise

simple, never always make simple backups

Using -s ignores -L and -P. Otherwise, the last option specified controls behavior when a TARGET is a symbolic link, defaulting to -P.

## AUTHOR

Written by Mike Parker and David MacKenzie.

## REPORTING BUGS

GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report ln translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

## SEE ALSO

link(2), symlink(2)

Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ln>
or available locally via: info (aq(coreutils) ln invocation(aq