How can I create a symbolic link in Terminal?

┌── 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:

$ man ln 

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.

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 

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.

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

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.

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 

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