NAME

       lndir - create a shadow directory of symbolic links to another directory 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,  CVS, CVS.adm, .git, .hg, RCS, SCCS, and .svn directories are shadowed only if the
       -withrevinfo flag is specified.  Files with names ending in ~ are never shadowed.

       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 specially.  The link created in todir
              will point back to the corresponding (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 source control manager subdirectories (those named BitKeeper, CVS, CVS.adm, .git,  .hg,
              RCS, SCCS, or .svn) 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.

SEE ALSO

       ln(1).