How to create symbolic links to all files (class of files) in a directory?

Question

I would like to create symbolic links (ln -s) to all files (or a class of files, e.g. ending with .bar) in a certain directory. Say I'm in the cwd and type ls ../source/*.bar gives me

foo.bar
baz.bar

how can I pass the parameter list to ln -s that it finally resolves to

ln -s ../source/foo.bar
ln -s ../source/baz.bar

Of course I know I can write a bash script, but there should be something simpler involving xargs or so since it seems to be a common task - at least for me.

score 121 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 19 '13 at 08:54

121

ln does take multiple arguments, but don't forget to give a target directory in that case.

So, in your example . is the target directory, so it should be as easy as

ln -s ../source/*.bar .

From man ln; the command above uses the 3rd form:

ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME   (1st form)
ln [OPTION]... TARGET                  (2nd form)
ln [OPTION]... TARGET... DIRECTORY     (3rd form)
ln [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY TARGET...  (4th form)

In the 1st form, create a link to TARGET with the name LINK_NAME.

In the 2nd form, create a link to TARGET in the current directory.

In the 3rd and 4th forms, create links to each TARGET in DIRECTORY.

answered Aug 19 '13 at 08:54

mpy

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This doesn't work if there are no files `*.bar`. It will create a link with the name `"*.bar"`, which is not what you want. – Nimrod May 09 '17 at 16:28
1

@Nimrod: That's true, but you can tell _bash_ that you want it to report an error instead via `shopt -s failglob`; see e.g. https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/216227/33390 (The equivalent in _zsh_ is `setopt nomatch`, which is turned on by default) – mpy May 09 '17 at 17:25
For the failure reporting, what's the equivalent for csh or generically sh for any shell? – David May 05 '23 at 20:18

kenorb · Answer 2 · 2017-05-10T11:44:16.747

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You can try recursively either with using globstar (bash/zsh set by: shopt -s globstar):

ls -vs ../**/*.bar .

^{Note: Added -v for verbose.}

Or if the list is too long, using find utility:

find .. -name \*.bar -exec ln -vs "{}" dest/ ';'

This will create links in dest/, or change it to . for current folder.

edited May 10 '17 at 11:44

answered Apr 23 '15 at 16:43

kenorb

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The second one is the correct answer. – Nimrod May 09 '17 at 16:35

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 19 '13 at 10:50

6

Use find

certainDir="/path/to/dir"
find -name "*.bar" -exec ln -s {} "$certainDir" \;

Also, remember to use full paths (where possible) with symlinks.

edited Aug 19 '13 at 10:50

slhck

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answered Aug 19 '13 at 08:49

justbrowsing

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Thanks, but isn't it `find $certainDir -name "*.bar" -exec ln -s {} \;`? And why should I use full paths? I find it quite convenient to know that links stay intact when I move a directory tree around wihch has some internal links. – dastrobu Aug 19 '13 at 08:56
That depends where you want to symlink the directories. And I can't remember why full paths are a good idea, it might have been for hard links but I burned that into my mind for a reason. Hmmm. – justbrowsing Aug 19 '13 at 08:59
Thanks, your answer is great. Since mpy's answer is the simpler solution to the question, the point goes to him/her. I would accept both answers, if I could. – dastrobu Aug 19 '13 at 09:07

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered May 30 '19 at 15:31

5

cp with -s option can create a soft links (or -l for hard links).

From current directory can by used like this:

$ cp -s ../path/with/scripts/* .

In your case it will be like this:

$ cp -s ../source/*.bar .

answered May 30 '19 at 15:31

Dmitry

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Found an interesting related post on symlinks with cp: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/46047/create-symbolic-links-with-wildcards – David May 05 '23 at 20:25

How to create symbolic links to all files (class of files) in a directory?

4 Answers4