Tips

• Mac OS aliases and Unix symbolic links make it convenient to access deeply buried files or to organize files differently than the way the operating system organizes them.

• If you omit the -s option, the ln command creates a hard link. Hard links can't cross file systems (or partitions) and can't normally refer to directories.

• Unix does not tell you if the source file to which you want to create a symbolic link does not exist. As a result, it's possible to create an alias that doesn't point to anything.

• You can learn more about other options for the ln command in its man pages. Type man ln and press to display them.