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Revision 1.22, Mon Oct 29 11:22:59 2007 UTC (16 years, 5 months ago) by jnemeth
Branch: MAIN
CVS Tags: yamt-pf42-baseX, yamt-pf42-base4, yamt-pf42-base3, yamt-pf42-base2, yamt-pf42-base, yamt-pf42, wrstuden-revivesa-base-3, wrstuden-revivesa-base-2, wrstuden-revivesa-base-1, wrstuden-revivesa-base, wrstuden-revivesa, netbsd-5-base, netbsd-5-2-RELEASE, netbsd-5-2-RC1, netbsd-5-2-3-RELEASE, netbsd-5-2-2-RELEASE, netbsd-5-2-1-RELEASE, netbsd-5-2, netbsd-5-1-RELEASE, netbsd-5-1-RC4, netbsd-5-1-RC3, netbsd-5-1-RC2, netbsd-5-1-RC1, netbsd-5-1-5-RELEASE, netbsd-5-1-4-RELEASE, netbsd-5-1-3-RELEASE, netbsd-5-1-2-RELEASE, netbsd-5-1-1-RELEASE, netbsd-5-1, netbsd-5-0-RELEASE, netbsd-5-0-RC4, netbsd-5-0-RC3, netbsd-5-0-RC2, netbsd-5-0-RC1, netbsd-5-0-2-RELEASE, netbsd-5-0-1-RELEASE, netbsd-5-0, netbsd-5, mjf-devfs2-base, mjf-devfs2, matt-premerge-20091211, matt-nb5-pq3-base, matt-nb5-pq3, matt-nb5-mips64-u2-k2-k4-k7-k8-k9, matt-nb5-mips64-u1-k1-k5, matt-nb5-mips64-premerge-20101231, matt-nb5-mips64-premerge-20091211, matt-nb5-mips64-k15, matt-nb5-mips64, matt-nb4-mips64-k7-u2a-k9b, matt-mips64-premerge-20101231, matt-mips64-base2, matt-armv6-nbase, matt-armv6-base, keiichi-mipv6-base, keiichi-mipv6, jym-xensuspend-nbase, jym-xensuspend-base, jym-xensuspend, hpcarm-cleanup-nbase, hpcarm-cleanup-base, cube-autoconf-base, cube-autoconf, bouyer-quota2-base
Branch point for: bouyer-quota2
Changes since 1.21: +6 -6 lines

PR/37243 - Joerg Niendorf -- fixup botched addition of -i option

.\"	$NetBSD: ln.1,v 1.22 2007/10/29 11:22:59 jnemeth Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
.\"
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.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
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.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
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.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"	@(#)ln.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93
.\"
.Dd October 29, 2007
.Dt LN 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ln
.Nd make links
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl fhinsv
.Ar source_file
.Op Ar target_file
.Nm
.Op Fl fhinsv
.Ar source_file ... target_dir
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the
same modes as the original file.
It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places
at once without using up storage for the
.Dq copies ;
instead, a link
.Dq points
to the original copy.
There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links.
How a link
.Dq points
to a file is one of the differences between a hard or symbolic link.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width flag
.It Fl f
Unlink any already existing file, permitting the link to occur.
.It Fl h
If the
.Ar target_file
or
.Ar target_dir
is a symbolic link, do not follow it.
This is most useful with the
.Fl f
option, to replace a symlink which may point to a directory.
.It Fl i
Cause
.Nm
to write a prompt to standard error if the target file exists.
If the response from the standard input begins with the character
.Sq Li y
or
.Sq Li Y ,
then unlink the target file so that the link may occur.
Otherwise, do not attempt the link.
(The
.Fl i
option overrides any previous
.Fl f
options.)
.It Fl n
Same as
.Fl h ,
for compatibility with other
.Nm
implementations.
.It Fl s
Create a symbolic link.
.It Fl v
Cause
.Nm
to be verbose, showing files as they are processed.
.El
.Pp
By default
.Nm
makes
.Em hard
links.
A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original directory entry;
any changes to a file are effective independent of the name used to reference
the file.
Hard links may not normally refer to directories and may not span file systems.
.Pp
A symbolic link contains the name of the file to
which it is linked.
The referenced file is used when an
.Xr open  2
operation is performed on the link.
A
.Xr stat  2
on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an
.Xr lstat  2
must be done to obtain information about the link.
The
.Xr readlink  2
call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link.
Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories.
.Pp
Given one or two arguments,
.Nm
creates a link to an existing file
.Ar source_file  .
If
.Ar target_file
is given, the link has that name;
.Ar target_file
may also be a directory in which to place the link;
otherwise it is placed in the current directory.
If only the directory is specified, the link will be made
to the last component of
.Ar source_file  .
.Pp
Given more than two arguments,
.Nm
makes links in
.Ar target_dir
to all the named source files.
The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr link 2 ,
.Xr lstat 2 ,
.Xr readlink 2 ,
.Xr stat 2 ,
.Xr symlink 2 ,
.Xr symlink 7
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
utility conforms to
.St -p1003.2-92 .
.Pp
The
.Fl v
option is an extension to
.St -p1003.2-92 .
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
utility appeared in
.At v6 .