The ln command is used on Unix-like systems to create links between files. Links allow more than one location to refer to the same information.

There are two types of links; both are created by ln. *Symbolic links, which refer to a symbolic path indicating the abstract location of another file. *Hard links, which refer to the specific location of physical data.

=Usage=

The general syntax for the ln command is:

ln [-s] target [ name ]

The target parameter indicates the location or file to which the link should point. The optional name parameter specifies the name that link should be given. If no name is specified, the Basename of the target will be used. The ln utility creates hard link by default; the -s option indicates that a symbolic link should be created instead.

=Examples=

ln xyz abc

Creates a hard link called abc whose target is the same as that of the existing file xyz.

ln -s /usr/share/pixmaps/image.jpg

Creates a symbolic link that points to the path /usr/share/pixmaps/image.jpg. The link would be named image.jpg because that is the basename of its target.

For further options like -d,-b,-f,-n, and more about the ln command you can read the man (Unix) pages for ln

=See also=