How do I symlink each of the files in one directory to another directory?

Question

If I have a directory /foo with a few files in it, how do I symlink each entry in /foo into /bar/?

For instance, if /foo has the files a, b and c, I want to create three symlinks:

• /bar/a -> /foo/a
• /bar/b -> /foo/b
• /bar/c -> /foo/c

Answer 1

You can use (GNU) cp with the --symbolic-link option:

prompt$ mkdir foo
prompt$ cd foo
prompt$ touch a b c
prompt$ mkdir ../bar
prompt$ cd ../bar
prompt$ cp --symbolic-link ../foo/* .
prompt$ ls -l
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 hlovdal hlovdal 8 Jun 12 16:24 a -> ../foo/a
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 hlovdal hlovdal 8 Jun 12 16:24 b -> ../foo/b
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 hlovdal hlovdal 8 Jun 12 16:24 c -> ../foo/c
prompt$

Answer 2

Give this a try:

ln -s /foo/* /bar

Answer 3

Something like this?

cd /foo
for f in *; do ln -s $PWD/$f /bar; done