ln

Updated

July 31, 2026

Overview

ln creates hard links or symbolic links (symlinks). Symlinks are the usual tool for path aliases; hard links share inode data on the same filesystem.

Syntax

ln [options] target link_name
ln [options] target... directory

Common Options

Option	Description
`-s`	Symbolic link
`-f`	Force replace
`-n`	Treat link_name as normal file if symlink to dir
`-v`	Verbose
`-r`	Relative symlink (GNU)
`-b`	Backup before overwrite

Examples with Explanations

Symlinks

ln -s /usr/bin/python3 ~/bin/python
ln -s ../config/app.env .env
ln -sfr ../targets/current app   # relative, force (GNU)
ls -l
readlink -f app

Hard links

ln important.dat important-hard.dat
ls -li important*.dat            # same inode

Replace safely

ln -sfn /opt/app/releases/1.2 /opt/app/current

Notes

Hard links cannot cross filesystems or link directories (normally).
Broken symlinks show in ls (often red); test -e fails.
Prefer ln -s for version switches (current → release).