| LN(1) | General Commands Manual | LN(1) | 
ln —
| ln | [ -L|-P|-s[-F]]
      [-f|-iw]
      [-hnv] source_file
      [target_file] | 
| ln | [ -L|-P|-s[-F]]
      [-f|-iw]
      [-hnv] source_file ...
      target_dir | 
ln utility creates a new directory entry (linked
  file) for the file name specified by target_file. The
  target_file will be created with the same file modes as
  the source_file. It is useful for maintaining multiple
  copies of a file in many places at once without using up storage for the
  “copies”; instead, a link “points” to the original
  copy. There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links. How a link
  “points” to a file is one of the differences between a hard and
  symbolic link.
The options are as follows:
-F-F option should be
      used with either -f or -i
      options. If none is specified, -f is implied. The
      -F option is a no-op unless
      -s option is specified.-L-P option.-P-L
      option.-f-f option overrides any previous
      -i and -w options.)-h-f option, to replace
      a symlink which may point to a directory.-iln to write a prompt to standard error if
      the target file exists. If the response from the standard input begins
      with the character ‘y’ or
      ‘Y’, then unlink the target file so
      that the link may occur. Otherwise, do not attempt the link. (The
      -i option overrides any previous
      -f options.)-n-h, for compatibility with other
      ln implementations.-s-vln to be verbose, showing files as they are
      processed.-wBy default, ln makes
    hard links. A hard link to a file is indistinguishable
    from the original directory entry; any changes to a file are effectively
    independent of the name used to reference the file. Directories may not be
    hardlinked, and hard links may not span file systems.
A symbolic link contains the name of the file to which it is linked. The referenced file is used when an open(2) operation is performed on the link. A stat(2) on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an lstat(2) must be done to obtain information about the link. The 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.
Given one or two arguments, ln creates a
    link to an existing file source_file. If
    target_file is given, the link has that name;
    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
    source_file.
Given more than two arguments, ln makes
    links in target_dir to all the named source files. The
    links made will have the same name as the files being linked to.
# ln -s /usr/src
  /home/srcHard link /usr/local/bin/fooprog to file /usr/local/bin/fooprog-1.0:
# ln /usr/local/bin/fooprog-1.0
  /usr/local/bin/fooprogAs an exercise, try the following commands:
# ls -i /bin/[ 11553 /bin/[ # ls -i /bin/test 11553 /bin/test
Note that both files have the same inode; that is,
    /bin/[ is essentially an alias for the
    test(1) command. This hard link
    exists so test(1) may be invoked
    from shell scripts, for example, using the if [ ]
    construct.
In the next example, the second call to ln
    removes the original foo and creates a replacement
    pointing to baz:
# mkdir bar baz # ln -s bar foo # ln -shf baz foo
Without the -h option, this would instead
    leave foo pointing to bar
    and inside foo create a new symlink
    baz pointing to itself. This results from
    directory-walking.
An easy rule to remember is that the argument order for
    ln is the same as for
    cp(1): The first argument needs to
    exist, the second one is created.
-h, -i,
  -n, -v and
  -w options are non-standard and their use in scripts
  is not recommended. They are provided solely for compatibility with other
  ln implementations.
The -F option is a
    FreeBSD extension and should not be used in portable
    scripts.
ln utility conforms to IEEE Std
  1003.2-1992 (“POSIX.2”).
ln command appeared in
  Version 1 AT&T UNIX.
| April 20, 2017 | NetBSD 10.0 |