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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | AUTHOR | REPORTING BUGS | COPYRIGHT | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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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.
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln--backup\--backup[=CONTROL]]8;;\
make a backup of each existing destination file
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-b\-b]8;;\ like --backup but does not accept an argument
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-d\-d, -F, --directory]8;;\
allow the superuser to attempt to hard link directories, if
supported by the system
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-f\-f, --force]8;;\
remove existing destination files
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-i\-i, --interactive]8;;\
prompt whether to remove destinations
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-L\-L, --logical]8;;\
dereference TARGETs that are symbolic links
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-n\-n, --no-dereference]8;;\
treat LINK_NAME as a normal file if it is a symbolic link
to a directory
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-P\-P, --physical]8;;\
make hard links directly to symbolic links
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-r\-r, --relative]8;;\
with -s, create links relative to link location
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-s\-s, --symbolic]8;;\
make symbolic links instead of hard links
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-S\-S, --suffix=SUFFIX]8;;\
override the usual backup suffix
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-t\-t, --target-directory=DIRECTORY]8;;\
specify the DIRECTORY in which to create the links
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-T\-T, --no-target-directory]8;;\
treat LINK_NAME as a normal file always
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ln-v\-v, --verbose]8;;\
print name of each linked file
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ln#ln--help\--help]8;;\ display this help and exit
]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ln#ln--version\--version]8;;\
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:
none, off
never make backups (even if --backup is given)
numbered, t
make numbered backups
existing, nil
numbered if numbered backups exist, simple otherwise
simple, never
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.
Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to
<https://translationproject.org/team/>
Copyright © 2026 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'
This page is part of the coreutils (basic file, shell and text
manipulation utilities) project. Information about the project
can be found at ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/⟩. If you
have a bug report for this manual page, see
⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/⟩. This page was obtained
from the tarball coreutils-9.11.tar.xz fetched from
⟨http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/⟩ on 2026-05-24. If you
discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page,
or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the
page, or you have corrections or improvements to the information
in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page),
send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
GNU coreutils 9.11 April 2026 LN(1)
Pages that refer to this page: dh_link(1), pmlogcompress(1), pmlogmv(1), update-alternatives(1), link(2), symlink(2), hier(7), symlink(7), sln(8)
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HTML rendering created 2026-05-24 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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