LNDIR(1)							     LNDIR(1)



NAME
       lndir  - create a shadow directory of symbolic links to another direc-
       tory tree

SYNOPSIS
       lndir [ -silent ] [ -ignorelinks ] [ -withrevinfo ] fromdir [ todir ]

DESCRIPTION
       The lndir program makes a  shadow  copy	todir  of  a  directory	 tree
       fromdir,	 except	 that the shadow is not populated with real files but
       instead with symbolic links pointing at the real files in the  fromdir
       directory  tree.	  This	is usually useful for maintaining source code
       for different machine architectures.  You create	 a  shadow  directory
       containing  links  to  the  real	 source,  which you will have usually
       mounted from a remote machine.  You can build in the shadow tree,  and
       the  object  files  will	 be in the shadow directory, while the source
       files in the shadow directory are just symlinks to the real files.

       This scheme has the advantage that if you update the source, you	 need
       not propagate the change to the other architectures by hand, since all
       source in all shadow directories are symlinks to the real thing:	 just
       cd to the shadow directory and recompile away.

       The  todir argument is optional and defaults to the current directory.
       The fromdir argument may be relative (e.g., ../src) and is relative to
       todir (not the current directory).

       Note  that BitKeeper, RCS, SCCS, CVS and CVS.adm directories are shad-
       owed only if the -withrevinfo flag is specified.

       If you add files, simply run lndir again.  New files will be  silently
       added.  Old files will be checked that they have the correct link.

       Deleting files is a more painful problem; the symlinks will just point
       into never never land.

       If a file in fromdir is a symbolic link, lndir will make the same link
       in  todir  rather than making a link back to the (symbolic link) entry
       in fromdir.  The -ignorelinks flag changes this behavior.

OPTIONS
       -silent
	      Normally lndir outputs the name  of  each	 subdirectory  as  it
	      descends	into  it.  The -silent option suppresses these status
	      messages.

       -ignorelinks
	      Causes the program to not treat symbolic links in fromdir	 spe-
	      cially.	The link created in todir will point back to the cor-
	      responding (symbolic link) file in fromdir.  If the link is  to
	      a directory, this is almost certainly the wrong thing.

	      This option exists mostly to emulate the behavior the C version
	      of lndir had in X11R6.  Its use is not recommended.

       -withrevinfo
	      Causes any BitKeeper, RCS, SCCS, CVS and CVS.adm subdirectories
	      to be treated as any other directory, rather than ignored.

DIAGNOSTICS
       The program displays the name of each subdirectory it enters, followed
       by a colon.  The -silent option suppresses these messages.

       A warning message is displayed if the symbolic link cannot be created.
       The  usual  problem  is	that  a regular file of the same name already
       exists.

       If the link already exists but doesn't point to the correct file,  the
       program prints the link name and the location where it does point.



								     LNDIR(1)

UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page:

1. links
2. at
3. which
4. symlinks
5. more
6. file
7. link
8. make
9. as