What does ln stand for?

symlink ln

5,571

All the ln means "link", not just the "l". Just the same as ls meaning "list", cp means "copy" and mv means "move".

They are part of the "two letter commands", for example:

ar — ARchive
as — ASsembler
bc — Basic Calculator
cc — C Compiler
cp — CoPy files and directories
dc — Desk Calculator
dd — Data Description: convert and copy a file
df — Disk Free: report file system disk space usage
du — Disk Usage
ed — EDitor
ld — Link eDitor
ln — make LiNks between files
lp — Line Printer
ls — LiSt directory contents
mv — MoVe (rename) files
nl — Number Lines of file
nm — NaMe list
od — Octal Dump
pg — PaGinate
pr — (PRetty) PRint
ps — Process Status: report a snapshot of the current proceses.
rm — ReMove files or directories
sh — SHell
su — run a command with Substitute User and group ID / originally Super User
vi — VIsual editor
wc — Word Count

5,571

Cory Klein

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Cory Klein almost 2 years
In Linux you can use the ln command to make links.
```
$ touch foo
$ ln -s foo foo_link
$ ls -l
lrwxrwxrwx  1 cklein cklein         3 May 29 16:11 foo_link -> foo
```
I assume that the 'l' in ln stands for "link", but what does the 'n' stand for?

What does ln stand for?
Frederik Deweerdt about 11 years

I think that su comes from 'super user' instead
J. A. Corbal about 11 years

Maybe, or just "switch user".
Frederik Deweerdt about 11 years

Actually, checking in the UNIX PROGRAMMER’S MANUAL, Seventh Edition, Volume 1, January, 1979. It says 'substitute user'.
J. A. Corbal about 11 years

@FrederikDeweerdt Thanks for the clarification. It's good to know those details.
Admin about 11 years

I think your description for su is a bit misleading. su runs a command with a substitute user and group ID. It doesn't change the current user's UID or make the current user a superuser.
J. A. Corbal about 11 years

@EvanTeitelman I disagree. I took that description of su from man su. My manual was written on 2011-02-16 (may be not the last update --I'm using Gentoo Linux--, but definitely the su manual itself.)
Admin about 11 years

util-linux added a manpage for su in May of 2012 based on the GNU coreutil 'su invocation' info page. It is possible that the manpage you are looking at was created by a third party (i.e. somebody other than a util-linux or GNU developer). Third party manpages are not always subject to the sort of careful inspection that project-provided manpages are subject to. That may explain why the manpage you are looking contains a potentially-misleading description.
J. A. Corbal about 11 years

@EvanTeitelman It's possible. I'm updating the answer using the definition in GNU Coreutils. Thanks.
Admin about 11 years

Besides that, your answer is excellent, so here's a +1 from me.
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' about 11 years

The Unix First Edition man pages are available on the Internet.
Plutor about 11 years

"Switch/substitute user" may be more accurate now, but historically, the oldest available implementation of su, in Unix v5 (1974), could only switch to super-user: pthree.org/2009/12/31/the-meaning-of-su
user3821306 over 4 years

Read somewhere ls is an acronym for List Segments... archaic clearly jlwallen brighthub.com/computing/linux/articles/14459.aspx I get a feeling you made a lot of these up lol. Also, "grep" is an acronym for Global Regular Expression Print