DOKK / manpages / debian 11 / coreutils / ln.1.en
LN(1) User Commands LN(1)

ln - make links between files

ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME
ln [OPTION]... TARGET
ln [OPTION]... TARGET... DIRECTORY
ln [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY TARGET...

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.

make a backup of each existing destination file
like --backup but does not accept an argument
allow the superuser to attempt to hard link directories (note: will probably fail due to system restrictions, even for the superuser)
remove existing destination files
prompt whether to remove destinations
dereference TARGETs that are symbolic links
treat LINK_NAME as a normal file if it is a symbolic link to a directory
make hard links directly to symbolic links
create symbolic links relative to link location
make symbolic links instead of hard links
override the usual backup suffix
specify the DIRECTORY in which to create the links
treat LINK_NAME as a normal file always
print name of each linked file
display this help and exit
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:

never make backups (even if --backup is given)
make numbered backups
numbered if numbered backups exist, simple otherwise
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.

Written by Mike Parker and David MacKenzie.

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

Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://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.

link(2), symlink(2)

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

September 2020 GNU coreutils 8.32