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 argu-
ment 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  systems  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 symbolic link
itself.   A symbolic link to a directory behaves differently
than you might expect in certain cases.  While an ls(1V)  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
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@

SEE ALSO

cp(1), ls(1), mv(1), rm(1) in the User's  Reference  Manual.
link(2),    readlink(2),    stat(2),   symlink(2)   in   the
Programmer's Reference Manual.

NOTES

When the last argument  is  a  directory,  simple  basenames
should not be used for pathname arguments.  If a basename is
used, the resulting symbolic 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 direc-
tory:

     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