ln.1 (3796B)
1 .\" 2 .\" Sccsid @(#)ln.1 1.11 (gritter) 2/2/05 3 .\" Parts taken from ln(1), Unix 7th edition: 4 .\" Copyright(C) Caldera International Inc. 2001-2002. All rights reserved. 5 .\" 6 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8 .\" are met: 9 .\" Redistributions of source code and documentation must retain the 10 .\" above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following 11 .\" disclaimer. 12 .\" Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 13 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 14 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 15 .\" All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 16 .\" must display the following acknowledgement: 17 .\" This product includes software developed or owned by Caldera 18 .\" International, Inc. 19 .\" Neither the name of Caldera International, Inc. nor the names of 20 .\" other contributors may be used to endorse or promote products 21 .\" derived from this software without specific prior written permission. 22 .\" 23 .\" USE OF THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED FOR UNDER THIS LICENSE BY CALDERA 24 .\" INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR 25 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED 26 .\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 27 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL CALDERA INTERNATIONAL, INC. BE 28 .\" LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR 29 .\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF 30 .\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR 31 .\" BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, 32 .\" WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE 33 .\" OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, 34 .\" EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. 35 .TH LN 1 "2/2/05" "Heirloom Toolchest" "User Commands" 36 .SH NAME 37 ln \- make a link 38 .SH SYNOPSIS 39 \fBln\fR [\fB\-f\fR] [\fB\-n\fR] [\fB\-s\fR] 40 \fIname1\fR [\fIname2\fR .\ .\ .\ ] \fItarget\fR 41 .SH DESCRIPTION 42 A link is a directory entry referring to a file; 43 the same file 44 (together with its size, all its protection information, etc.) 45 may have several links to it. 46 There is no way to distinguish a link to a file 47 from its original directory entry; 48 any changes in the file 49 are effective independently of the name 50 by which the file is known. 51 .PP 52 .B Ln 53 creates a link named 54 .I target 55 to an existing file 56 .IR name1 . 57 If 58 .I target 59 is a directory, 60 more than one name may be given, 61 and the links are placed in that directory, 62 with the name of the last pathname component. 63 .PP 64 It is forbidden to link to a directory 65 or to link across file systems. 66 It is, however, possible 67 to create a 68 .I symbolic 69 .I link 70 even in this case; 71 see the 72 .B \-s 73 option below. 74 .PP 75 The 76 .B ln 77 command accepts the following options: 78 .TP 79 .B \-f 80 If the target file exists, 81 an attempt is made to unlink it 82 before the new link is created, 83 regardless of file permissions. 84 This option is ignored with 85 .B /usr/5bin/ln 86 and 87 .B /usr/5bin/s42/ln 88 if the 89 .I \-s 90 option is also given. 91 .TP 92 .B \-n 93 Do not remove an existing target file 94 even if the user has write permission on it. 95 This is the default for 96 .B /usr/5bin/posix/ls 97 and 98 .BR /usr/5bin/posix2001/ls . 99 .TP 100 .B \-s 101 Create a symbolic link, 102 that is a special file containing the pathname of the target file. 103 The system will resolve this pathname 104 when the symbolic link is accessed. 105 A symbolic link can refer to all types of files 106 and span device boundaries, 107 but will become stale if the target file is removed. 108 An existing target file will not be overwritten. 109 .SH "SEE ALSO" 110 cp(1), 111 mv(1), 112 link(2), 113 symlink(2)