LINUX COMMAND ATLAS · COMMAND GUIDE

Linux ln command

Create a link. Use -s to create a symbolic link.

GNU Coreutils

Syntax

Command form

ln [OPTION]... TARGET [LINK_NAME]

6 options

Option	What it does
`-s, --symbolic`	Create a symbolic link instead of a hard link.
`-f, --force`	Remove an existing destination link before creating the new one.
`-i, --interactive`	Prompt before removing an existing destination.
`-n, --no-dereference`	Treat a destination symlink to a directory as a normal file.
`-T, --no-target-directory`	Always treat LINK_NAME as the link name, not a directory.
`-v, --verbose`	Print the name of each created link.

3 examples

Create a link. Use -s to create a symbolic link.

ln -s /opt/app ./app

Create a symbolic link to a log file.

ln -s /var/log/app.log app.log

Create a hard link on the same filesystem.

ln source.dat source-hardlink.dat

Symbolic links can cross filesystems and may point to missing targets; hard links generally cannot cross filesystem boundaries.