On Sun, 06 May 2007 14:46:22 +0200, "A.J.Mechelynck"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Michael Henry wrote:
> > Gary Johnson wrote:
> >> On 2007-05-05, "A.J.Mechelynck" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >>> (Warning: In the "ln" command as used here, the target name comes
> >>> before the link name. I find this counter-intuitive.)
> >>
> >> It's not just me then. I have to think carefully about that every
> >> time I use ln.
> >
> > I used to find this hard to remember until I realized that 'ln' and 'cp'
> > are very similar. The 'cp' command copies one or more sources to a
> > destination; the 'ln' command links one or more sources to a destination
> > as well. I tend to think of 'ln -s' as "copy using symlinks". The
> > order and meaning of the arguments is the same between the commands,
> > which I now find consistent and intuitive.
>
> The problem is, "cp -v file1 file2" outputs
>
> `file1' -> `file2'
>
> ("the data has been copied from file1 to file2") but "ln -sv file1 file2"
> outputs
>
> file2 -> file1
>
> ("file2 is now a link pointing to file1"). I still have to call up the help
> or
> the manual every time I invoke it.
Just remember that for all of cp, ln and mv, the existing file comes
first.
I think the confusion arises because people think of ln as "create a
link", so they see "ln x y" as "create a link x...", which it isn't.
It makes more sense if you think of it this way:
mv x y move file x to file y
cp x y copy file x to file y
ln x y link file x to file y
--
Matthew Winn
