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Annotation of 43BSDReno/usr.bin/ln/ln.1, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
        !             2: .\" All rights reserved.
        !             3: .\"
        !             4: .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided
        !             5: .\" that: (1) source distributions retain this entire copyright notice and
        !             6: .\" comment, and (2) distributions including binaries display the following
        !             7: .\" acknowledgement:  ``This product includes software developed by the
        !             8: .\" University of California, Berkeley and its contributors'' in the
        !             9: .\" documentation or other materials provided with the distribution and in
        !            10: .\" all advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software.
        !            11: .\" Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors may
        !            12: .\" be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without
        !            13: .\" specific prior written permission.
        !            14: .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
        !            15: .\" WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
        !            16: .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
        !            17: .\"
        !            18: .\"     @(#)ln.1       6.5 (Berkeley) 7/24/90
        !            19: .\"
        !            20: .Dd July 24, 1990
        !            21: .Dt LN 1
        !            22: .Os BSD 4
        !            23: .Sh NAME
        !            24: .Nm ln
        !            25: .Nd make links
        !            26: .Sh SYNOPSIS
        !            27: .Nm ln
        !            28: .Op Fl s
        !            29: .Ar source_file
        !            30: .Op target_file
        !            31: .Nm ln
        !            32: .Op Fl s
        !            33: .Ar source_file ...
        !            34: .Op target_dir
        !            35: .Sh DESCRIPTION
        !            36: The
        !            37: .Nm ln
        !            38: utility creates a new
        !            39: directory entry (linked file)
        !            40: which inherits the same modes as the orginal
        !            41: file.
        !            42: It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in
        !            43: many places at once - without the `copies'; instead,
        !            44: a link `points' to the original copy.
        !            45: There are two types of links; hard links and symbolic links.
        !            46: How a link `points' to a file is one of the differences
        !            47: between a hard or symbolic link.
        !            48: .Pp
        !            49: Option available:
        !            50: .Tw Ds
        !            51: .Tp Fl s
        !            52: Create a symbolic link.
        !            53: .Tp
        !            54: .Pp
        !            55: By default
        !            56: .Nm ln
        !            57: makes
        !            58: .Em hard
        !            59: links.
        !            60: A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the
        !            61: original directory entry; any changes to a
        !            62: file are effective independent of the name used
        !            63: to reference the file.  Hard links may not refer to directories
        !            64: (unless the proper incantations are supplied) and may not span
        !            65: file systems.
        !            66: .Pp
        !            67: A symbolic link contains the name of the file to
        !            68: which it is linked.  The referenced file is used when an
        !            69: .Xr open  2
        !            70: operation is performed on the link.
        !            71: A
        !            72: .Xr stat  2
        !            73: on a symbolic link will return the linked-to file; an
        !            74: .Xr lstat  2
        !            75: must be done to obtain information about the link.
        !            76: The
        !            77: .Xr readlink  2
        !            78: call may be used to read the contents of a symbolic link.
        !            79: Symbolic links may span file systems and may refer to directories.
        !            80: .Pp
        !            81: Given one or two arguments,
        !            82: .Nm ln
        !            83: creates a link to an existing file
        !            84: .Ar source_file  .
        !            85: If
        !            86: .Ar target_file
        !            87: is given, the link has that name;
        !            88: .Ar target_file
        !            89: may also be a directory in which to place the link;
        !            90: otherwise it is placed in the current directory.
        !            91: If only the directory is specified, the link will be made
        !            92: to the last component of
        !            93: .Ar source_file  .
        !            94: .Pp
        !            95: Given more than two arguments,
        !            96: .Nm ln
        !            97: makes links in
        !            98: .Ar target_dir
        !            99: to all the named source files.
        !           100: The links made will have the same name as the files being linked to.
        !           101: .Sh SEE ALSO
        !           102: .Xr rm 1 ,
        !           103: .Xr cp 1 ,
        !           104: .Xr mv 1 ,
        !           105: .Xr link 2 ,
        !           106: .Xr readlink 2 ,
        !           107: .Xr stat 2 ,
        !           108: .Xr symlink 2
        !           109: .Sh HISTORY
        !           110: A
        !           111: .Nm ln
        !           112: command appeared in Version 6 AT&T Unix.

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