Linux create links to all files

How can I symlink a file in Linux? [closed]

Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.

This question does not appear to be about a specific programming problem, a software algorithm, or software tools primarily used by programmers. If you believe the question would be on-topic on another Stack Exchange site, you can leave a comment to explain where the question may be able to be answered.

I want to make a symbolic link in Linux. I have written this Bash command where the first path is the folder I want link into and the second path is the compiled source.

ln -s '+basebuild+'/IpDome-kernel/kernel /home/build/sandbox/gen2/basebuild/IpDome-kernel/kernal 

18 Answers 18

To create a new symlink (will fail if symlink exists already):

ln -s /path/to/file /path/to/symlink 

To create or update a symlink:

ln -sf /path/to/file /path/to/symlink 

Here’s a mnemonic for you: l(i)n(k) -s(ymbolic) (the fact that the last parameter is optional helps you figure out that it’s not the target) (btw leaving out the path to the symlink creates a link in the current directory with the same basename as the target)

I spent several minutes trying to figure out why this did not work for me. It created a self-looped link. It seems that the /path/to/file should be absolute and not relative to the «current folder». Perhaps point this out in the answer?

@AbhishekAnand it’s been a couple years, but I just wanted to leave the note that it does work with relative paths; it just needs to be relative to the resulting symbolic link’s directory and not the current directory. What you write as the first path argument is actually, verbatim, the text that’s going to be inside the symbolic link; that’s why, when it’s relative, it must be relative to the link.

Where the -s makes it symbolic.

I like to phrase it this way: ln -s where-the-symlink-should-point where-to-place-the-symlink-itself .

ln -s EXISTING_FILE_OR_DIRECTORY SYMLINK_NAME 

Except it isn’t the new symlink name. It is the name or a full path (relative to cur dir or absolute) for the new symlink including the name.

ln -s EXISTING_FILE_OR_DIRECTORYSYMLINK_NAME and don’t put a trailing slash on the symlink, as it’s not a directory

You can have a look at the man page here:

(Because an ASCII picture is worth a thousand characters.)

An arrow may be a helpful mnemonic, especially since that’s almost exactly how it looks in Emacs’ dired.

And big picture so you don’t get it confused with the Windows’ version

You could also look at these as

The from-here should not exist yet, it is to be created, while the to-here should already exist (IIRC).

(I always get mixed up on whether various commands and arguments should involve a pre-existing location, or one to be made.)

EDIT: It’s still sinking in slowly for me; I have another way I’ve written in my notes.

ln -s (target exists) (link is made) mklink (link is made) (target exists) 

In Emacs’ dired , it’s super easy, as you put cursor over your target, press S , and type the directory where you’d like the link to be created. Shortens the gap between imagining the desired result and typing. See gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/….

Another mnemonic for ON: ln -s oldname newname , these words are used in the Go OS library too golang.org/pkg/os/#Symlink

ln -s source_file target_file 

that is the opposite definition of «target» compared to man ln , which calls it ln -s TARGET LINK_NAME

'ln -s '+basebuild+'/IpDome-kernel/kernel /home/build/sandbox/gen2/basebuild/IpDome-kernel/kernal' 

This will indeed create a symbolic link ( -s ) from the file/directory:

/home/build/sandbox/gen2/basebuild/IpDome-kernel/kernal 

Here’s a few ways to help you remember:

First, there’s the man page for ln . You can access this via searching «man ln» in google, or just open a terminal window and type man ln and you’ll get the same information. The man page clearly states:

ln [OPTION]. [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME (1st form)

If having to search or read through a man page every time isn’t for you, maybe you’ll have an easier time remembering that all nix commands work the same way :

cp /file/that/exists /location/for/new/file mv /file/that/exists /location/its/moving/to ln /file/that/exists /the/new/link 

cp copies a file that currently exists (the first argument) to a new file (the second argument).
mv moves a file that currently exists (the first argument) to a new place (the second argument)
Likewise ln links a file that currently exists (the first argument) to a new link (the second argument) *

The final option I would like to suggest is you can create your own man pages that are easy to read and easy (for you) to find/remember. Just make a simple shell script that gives you the hint you need. For example ♦ :

In your .bash_aliases file you can place something like:

commandsfx() < echo "Symlink: ln -s /path/to/file /path/to/symlink" echo "Copy: cp /file/to/copy /destination/to/send/copy" >alias 'cmds'=commandsfx 

Then when you need it, from the command line just type cmds and you’ll get back the proper syntax in a way you can quickly read and understand it. You can make these functions as advanced as you’d like to get what what information you need, it’s up to you. You could even make them interactive so you just have to follow the prompts.. something like:

makesymlink() < echo "Symlink name:" read sym echo "File to link to:" read fil ln -s $fil $sym >alias 'symlink'=makesymlink 

* — well obviously they can all take different parameters and do different things and can work on files as well as directories. but the premise is the same
♦ — examples using the bash shell

Источник

Link All Files from One Directory to Another in Linux

The Kubernetes ecosystem is huge and quite complex, so it’s easy to forget about costs when trying out all of the exciting tools.

To avoid overspending on your Kubernetes cluster, definitely have a look at the free K8s cost monitoring tool from the automation platform CAST AI. You can view your costs in real time, allocate them, calculate burn rates for projects, spot anomalies or spikes, and get insightful reports you can share with your team.

Connect your cluster and start monitoring your K8s costs right away:

1. Overview

When working in Linux, we can create a link to a pre-existing file. This link works as a file pointer or a file reference – essentially, it serves as a shortcut for accessing the original file.

In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to link all files from one directory to another in Linux using various techniques.

2. Sample Directory

Let’s see the list of files within the sample directory we’ll be using. We can do this with the help of the ls -l command:

$ ls -l sample total 16 [email protected] 1 bhat bhat 1657 Jul 9 2021 file1.rtf [email protected] 1 bhat bhat 1657 Jul 9 2021 file2.rtf

Our sample directory contains two files: file1.rtf and file2.rtf.

The ultimate goal of this tutorial is to populate another directory, which we’ll call samplelink, so that it contains links to all the files from the sample directory. But first, let’s learn a little more about soft links.

3. Creating a Soft Link

A soft link is a file generated to contain the actual file path. It does not hold the contents of the original file. We can create a soft link using the ln command.

Let’s now create a soft link for the file1.rtf file, which is within our sample directory:

Using the above command, we have generated a soft link called linkfile1 that points to the file1.rtf file. The ln command with the -s option creates a soft link for a file.

We can check the output with the help of the ls -l command:

$ ls -l total 16 [email protected] 1 bhat bhat 1657 Jul 9 2021 file1.rtf [email protected] 1 bhat bhat 1657 Jul 9 2021 file2.rtf lrwxr-xr-x 1 bhat bhat 5 Jan 22 23:15 linkfile1.rtf -> file1.rtf

Also, once a soft link file is created, it’ll have a different inode number than the actual file. We can see this with the help of the ls -i command:

$ ls -i 12746289 file1.rtf 12745765 file2.rtf 12747072 linkfile1.rtf

Alternatively, we can create a soft link without even providing a name for the link. In this approach, the ln command generates a soft link – in the current working directory – that has the exact same name as the target file.

Let’s now create a soft link for the file1.rtf file, which is within our sample directory:

Here, we have generated a soft link for the file1.rtf file.

Let’s have a look at our results:

$ ls -l lrwxr-xr-x 1 bhat bhat 17 Jan 30 23:32 file1.rtf -> /sample/file1.rtf 

However, we must keep in mind that the above example won’t give the desired result if we run it from inside the sample directory.

Let’s execute the same command again within the sample directory:

$ cd sample $ ln -s /sample/file1.rtf ln: ./file1.rtf: File exists

In the above example, we see that there has been no creation of a soft link for the file1.rtf file, and we’ve received the “File exists” message as output.

4. Link Every File from One Directory

Let’s discuss some common solutions for linking all files from one directory to another directory.

4.1. Using the ln -s Command

We can create multiple links at once for files in a directory and store them in another directory with the help of the ln -s command.

We’ll now generate soft links for the files file1.rtf and file2.rtf (which are within our sample directory) inside another directory called samplelink:

Using the above command, we’ve generated soft links for all the files within the sample directory. The (*) represents all files inside the sample directory. The samplelink directory should now contain links to every file from the sample directory:

$ ls -l samplelink total 0 lrwxr-xr-x 1 bhat bhat 16 Jan 23 22:57 file1.rtf -> sample/file1.rtf lrwxr-xr-x 1 bhat bhat 16 Jan 23 22:57 file2.rtf -> sample/file2.rtf

4.2. Using the ln -fs Command

We can also link all files from one directory to another directory using the ln -fs command:

This time, we’ve created soft links for all the files (denoted by sample/*) that reside in the sample directory. Here, we’ve parsed the command-line options (-f and -s). This is done by fusing more than one single letter option into one option string.

The ln command with option -f deletes pre-existing destination files, and the -s option creates the soft links.

Let’s have a look at our results:

$ ls -l samplelink total 0 lrwxr-xr-x 1 bhat bhat 16 Jan 24 14:27 file1.rtf -> sample/file1.rtf lrwxr-xr-x 1 bhat bhat 16 Jan 24 14:27 file2.rtf -> sample/file2.rtf

We must note that none of the approaches discussed in this section will work for any hidden files in a directory.

5. Conclusion

In this article, we learned how to link all files from one directory to another using the ln command. In addition, we reviewed how to create a soft link for a file in Linux.

Источник

Create a new link to access all files and folders

I want to create a link between a new link and original path; however, both can access together. For example, if orignialPathName was a directory, it also creates a link to access all files and folders for a new link

2 Answers 2

The correct command in use was:

ln -s orginalPathName linkPathName

To view the contents of a directory, use something like:

For a non-directory, use command like this:

Keep in mind, that there are two types of links:

symbolic ( soft ) link. it is just reference to a file or directory system wide ( more )
To create it use

ln -s /path/to/original/file /path/to/link

ln /path/to/original/file /path/to/link

The difference and advantages of each type you can find in the wikipedia.

You must log in to answer this question.

Related

Hot Network Questions

Subscribe to RSS

To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader.

Site design / logo © 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA . rev 2023.7.14.43533

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
This site is not affiliated with Linus Torvalds or The Open Group in any way.

By clicking “Accept all cookies”, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy.

Источник