ln - Command line tool to create hard links to existing files and soft links to existing and non-existent files.
Questions tagged [ln]
142 questions
188
votes
6 answers
Too many levels of symbolic links
I created this file structure:
test/src
test/firefox
When I run this command:
ln -s test/src test/firefox
I would expect a symbolic link test/firefox/src to be created pointing to test/src, however I get this error instead:
-bash: cd: src: Too…
David Zorychta
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157
votes
3 answers
How to change ownership of symbolic links?
I am facing some issue with creating soft links. Following is the original file.
$ ls -l /etc/init.d/jboss
-rwxr-xr-x 1 askar admin 4972 Mar 11 2014 /etc/init.d/jboss
Link creation is failing with a permission issue for the owner of the file:
ln…
Zama Ques
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116
votes
4 answers
Create a symbolic link relative to the current directory
I'm trying to create a symbolic link in my home directory that points to a directory on my external HDD.
It works fine when I specify it like this:
cd ~
ln -s /run/media/name/exhdd/Data/ Data
However it creates a faulty link when I try this:
cd…
jcora
- 3,874
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89
votes
13 answers
Tips for remembering the order of parameters for ln?
I have used ln to write symbolic links for years but I still get the order of parameters the wrong away around.
This usually has me writing:
ln -s a b
and then looking at the output to remind myself.
I always imagine to be a -> b as I read it when…
Zhro
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33
votes
1 answer
Why are reboot, shutdown and poweroff symlinks to systemctl?
In Arch Linux, if I do ls -l in /sbin, I can see that reboot, shutdown and poweroff are all symlinks to /usr/bin/systemctl. But issuing reboot, shutdown and systemctl commands obviously does not all have the same behaviour.
Is ls -l not showing me…
Gradient
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33
votes
2 answers
Why use 'ln -sf' in Linux?
I have 2 questions. The first one is for the -sf options and the second one is for the more specific usage of -f options.
By googling, I figured out the description of command ln, option -s and -f.
(copy from…
casamia
- 565
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31
votes
5 answers
ln -s with a path relative to pwd
I'm trying to create a bunch of symbolic links, but I can't figure out why this is working
ln -s /Users/niels/something/foo ~/bin/foo_link
while this
cd /Users/niels/something
ln -s foo ~/bin/foo_link
is not.
I believe it has something to do with…
Niels B.
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30
votes
2 answers
Executable symbolic link results in "command not found"
I created a symbolic link (yesterday) like this:
sudo ln -s bin/python /usr/bin/prj-python
When I run:
prj-python file.py
I get:
prj-python: command not found
When I try creating the link again, I get:
ln: creating symbolic link…
xralf
- 16,149
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30
votes
2 answers
Why does ln -s accept a single argument
> cd /tmp
> ln -s foo
> ls -alhF /tmp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user 3 Jul 29 14:00 foo -> foo
Is this a bug in ln or is there a use case for symlinking a file to itself?
This is with coreutils 8.21-1ubuntu5.1.
Squidly
- 445
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- 8
29
votes
2 answers
Is there way to replace value of symbolic link?
Is there a way to replace the value of a symbolic link?
For example, I want to change a symbolic link from this:
first -> /home/username/foo/very/long/directories/that/I/do/not/want/to/type/again
to this:
second ->…
ironsand
- 5,085
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- 73
23
votes
3 answers
Move a file and replace it by a symlink
Can someone give me a command that would:
move a file towards a new directory
and leave a symlink in its old location towards its new one
Yollanda Beetroot
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19
votes
1 answer
How to force creation of a symbolic link?
I have a particular directory full of other directories organized (named) by date. For ease of reference, I have a symlink called current pointing to the latest one.
In the script that creates new date directories, I wish to create or fix the…
Wildcard
- 35,316
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19
votes
2 answers
Is there a difference between hardlinking with cp -l or ln?
I am implementing a backup scheme using rsync and hardlinks. I know I can use link-dest with rsync to do the hardlinks, but I saw mention of using "cp -l" before "link-dest" was implemented in rsync. Another method of hardlinking I know of is…
twan163
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17
votes
1 answer
What does ln stand for?
In Linux you can use the ln command to make links.
$ touch foo
$ ln -s foo foo_link
$ ls -l
lrwxrwxrwx 1 cklein cklein 3 May 29 16:11 foo_link -> foo
I assume that the 'l' in ln stands for "link", but what does the 'n' stand for?
What does…
Cory Klein
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17
votes
3 answers
How to create a folder symlink that has a different name?
I want to create a symlink
~/.pm2/logs -> /opt/myapp/log
When I run
ln -sFf /opt/myapp/log ~/.pm2/logs
I get a symlink
~/.pm2/logs/log -> /opt/myapp/log
which is not what I want.
I'd prefer a POSIX-compatible solution if possible.
ptkvsk
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