z/OS V1R9.0 UNIX System Services Command ... - Christian Grothoff

Portability
X/Open Portability Guide, UNIX System V.
Related Information
cat, head, read, sh, tail
link — Create a hard link to a file
Format
Description
Localization
Exit Values
link oldfile newfile
link creates a hard link to an existing file. A link is a new directory entry that refers
to the same file. This entry can be in the same directory that currently contains the
file or in a different directory. The result is that you get a new pathname that refers
to the file. You can access the file under the old or new pathname since both
pathnames are of equal importance. If you use rm to remove one pathname, the
other remains and the file contents are still available under that name. The contents
of the file do not disappear until the last remaining link associated with the file is
removed.
Following the format, new becomes a new pathname for the existing file old. If old
names a symbolic link, link creates a hard link to the file that results from resolving
the pathname contained in the symbolic link.
Links are allowed to files only, not to directories. A file can have any number of links
to it. Thus, you can establish any number of different pathnames for any file.
link is implemented as a shell built-in.
link uses the following localization environment variables:
v LANG
v LC_ALL
v LC_CTYPE
v LC_MESSAGES
v LC_SYNTAX
v NLSPATH
See Appendix F for more information.
0 Successful completion
1 Failure due to any of the following:
v A file specified could not be found
v No write permission on the directory intended to contain the link
v No search permission on a pathname component of old or new
v No permission to access old
v The pathname of one of the arguments is a directory
v The new link file already exists
2 Failure due to incorrect number of arguments
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Chapter 2. Shell command descriptions 347