Ln (Linux)

Use the Bash command ln to create links.

What I am usually looking for

ln -s <source> <link>

ln -s /var/www ~/www
cd ~; ln -s /var/www www

Doesn't overwrite

What happens when you try to overwrite an existing link:

$ ls -s file1 testlink
$ lis -s file2 testlink

ln: failed to create symbolic link 'testlink': File exists

See also

• Loop over files (Bash)

Appendix: ln --help

Usage: ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME   (1st form)
  or:  ln [OPTION]... TARGET                  (2nd form)
  or:  ln [OPTION]... TARGET... DIRECTORY     (3rd form)
  or:  ln [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY TARGET...  (4th form)
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.
      --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 (note: will probably fail due to
                                system restrictions, even for the superuser)
  -f, --force                 remove existing destination files
  -i, --interactive           prompt whether to remove destinations
  -L, --logical               dereference TARGETs 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              create symbolic 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

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.

GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ln>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) ln invocation'