LN(1)

📦
version 9.10 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 LN(1) — ln

okay bestie, sit down, we're learning ln today and honestly? it's giving "tiny command, huge power". ✨

🌸 NAME

ln — make links between files 🔗

🎀 SYNOPSIS

ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME
ln [OPTION]... TARGET
ln [OPTION]... TARGET... DIRECTORY
ln [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY TARGET...

🦋 DESCRIPTION

Okay so there's four whole ways to run this thing, and each one is a different mood:

  1. the 1st form — make a link to TARGET with the name LINK_NAME 💫
  2. the 2nd form — make a link to TARGET in the current directory (right where you're standing, no cap)
  3. the 3rd and 4th forms — make links to each TARGET in DIRECTORY 🗂️

By default you get hard links, but if you say --symbolic you get symbolic links instead. And by default, each destination (that's the name of the new link) should not already exist — the command is NOT gonna just bulldoze stuff for you, no ma'am. 🙈

When you're creating hard links, every single TARGET must exist. Symbolic links on the other hand can hold arbitrary text — like, literally whatever — and if it ever gets resolved later, a relative link is interpreted in relation to its parent directory. iykyk. 🧚

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. (This applies everywhere, forever, it's just how GNU works bestie.)

✨ the options, one by one 💅

  • --backup[=CONTROL] — make a backup of each existing destination file 🫶
  • -b — like --backup but does not accept an argument
  • -d, -F, --directory — allow the superuser to attempt to hard link directories, if supported by the system 👑
  • -f, --force — remove existing destination files 🔥
  • -i, --interactive — prompt whether to remove destinations 🙋
  • -L, --logical — dereference *TARGET*s that are symbolic links
  • -n, --no-dereference — treat LINK_NAME as a normal file if it is a symbolic link to a directory
  • -P, --physical — make hard links directly to symbolic links
  • -r, --relative — with -s, create links relative to link location 📍
  • -s, --symbolic — make symbolic links instead of hard links 🌈
  • -S, --suffix=SUFFIX — override the usual backup suffix
  • -t, --target-directory=DIRECTORY — specify the DIRECTORY in which to create the links 🗂️
  • -T, --no-target-directory — treat LINK_NAME as a normal file always
  • -v, --verbose — print name of each linked file 🗣️
  • --help — display this help and exit
  • --version — output version information and exit

🍓 about them backups

The backup suffix is '~', unless you set it with --suffix or the SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX environment variable. And the version control method (the vibe of your backups, basically) can be picked via the --backup option or through the VERSION_CONTROL environment variable. Here are the values, bestie:

  • 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

🌟 one more thing, this one matters

Using -s ignores -L and -P. Otherwise, the last option specified controls behavior when a TARGET is a symbolic link, defaulting to -P.

💜 AUTHOR

Written by Mike Parker and David MacKenzie. iconic behavior, honestly. 👑

😭 REPORTING BUGS

Found a bug? Tell the people:

🔗 SEE ALSO

Packaged by Ubuntu (9.10-1ubuntu2), 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.

okay periodt, that's the whole page bestie — this one's from GNU coreutils 9.10, dated August 2026, and it lives in the LN(1) section of the manual. now go make some links and slay 💖🦋✨

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