How can I create a symbolic link in Terminal?

Question

What command is used to create a symbolic link/soft link?

Answer 1

┌── ln(1) link, ln -- make links
│   ┌── Create a symbolic link.
│   │                         ┌── the optional path to the intended symlink
│   │                         │   if omitted, symlink is in . named as destination
│   │                         │   can use . or ~ or other relative paths
│   │                   ┌─────┴────────┐
ln -s /path/to/original /path/to/symlink
      └───────┬───────┘
              └── the path to the original file/folder
                  can use . or ~ or other relative paths

$ echo content > original
$ ln -s original symlink
$ ls -la original symlink
-rw-r--r--  1 grgarside  staff    8 28 Jan 18:44 original
lrwxr-xr-x  1 grgarside  staff    8 28 Jan 18:44 symlink -> original
$ cat symlink
content

For more information about ln(1) see the man page.

The path to the symlink is optional; if omitted, ln defaults to making a link with the same name as the destination, in the current directory:

$ cd ~/Documents
$ ln -s ../Pictures
$ ls -l Pictures
lrwxr-xr-x  1 user  staff  11 Feb  1 17:05 Pictures -> ../Pictures

To create a symlink to replace a system directory (e.g. if you want to have /Users pointing to another disk drive), you need to disable System Integrity Protection. You can re-enable it after the symlink is set up.

Answer 2

The command is called ln. If used with the option -s it will create a symbolic link in the current directory:

ln -s /any/file/on/the/disk linked-file

If you want to overwrite an already existing target (linked-file), use

ln -Fs /any/file/on/the/disk linked-file

Answer 3

I know this question is explicitly asking about the Terminal, but if you're in GUI Land and don't want to enter Terminal Land, you can use SymbolicLinker. This puts a "Make Symbolic Link" option in your Services menu in Finder.

Answer 4

It's just ln -s <source> <destination>.

Answer 5

ln -s /some/dir/ ~/Desktop/dir

You can also create a symlink for directory using the same command

ln -s "$(pwd)" ~/Desktop/dir

To create symlink to current directory you are in.

Answer 6

Unless the source path is relative to your destination, use an absolute path to your source path, and put it in single quotes

$ ln -s '/any file/could have (special chars)/or spaces/test' '/some/other place/file'

You can always figure out the current full unescaped path to something by going to that folder in the terminal, then typing

$ pwd

Answer 7

As a heads up to anyone, you must use full path names. This wasn't immediately clear to me, as I felt I could symlink relative paths in a folder that I was running the command inside. I could be wrong (I'm a macOS novice).

For example, if I try to symlink my Pictures folder inside of my Downloads folder, while cd'd in my user home directory, this will not work:

Users\stevebauman >_ ln -s Pictures Downloads

Instead, you must use:

Users\stevebauman >_ ln -s /Users/stevebauman/Pictures /Users/stevebauman/Downloads