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ln ⚬ˢʰ｜Definition｜1st｜20260523112606-00-⌔
ln (Unix)
ln is a shell command for creating a link file to an existing file or directory.1 By default, the command creates a hard link, but with the
-scommand line option, it creates a symbolic link.2 Most systems disallow a hard link to a directory since such links could disrupt the structure of a file system and interfere with the operation of other utilities.3 The command can create a symbolic link to non-existent file.4The command appeared in Issue 2 of the X/Open Portability Guidelines.5 The version in GNU Core Utilities was written by Mike Parker and David MacKenzie.6 The command is available in Windows via UnxUtils7 and has been ported to IBM i.8
Printed 2026-06-28.
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Link to original Footnotes
Kernighan, Brian W.; Pike, Rob (1984). The Unix programming environment. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. p. 59. ISBN 013937681X. ↩
“ln - The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7”. pubs.opengroup.org. The IEEE and The Open Group. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2015. ↩
“Why are hard links not allowed to directories in UNIX/Linux?”. unix.stackexchange.com. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2015. ↩
“GNU Coreutils: ln invocation”. gnu.org. Free Software Foundation, Inc. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2015. ↩
ln– Shell and Utilities Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 5 from The Open Group ↩
ln(1)– Linux General Commands Manual from ManKier.com ↩“Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities”. unxutils.sourceforge.net. Archived from the original on 2006-02-09. Retrieved 2025-08-09. ↩
IBM. “IBM System i Version 7.2 Programming Qshell” (PDF). IBM. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-09-05. ↩
ln ⚬ˢʰ｜docu｜1st｜20251021001049-00-◊
ln(1) - Linux manual page
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