ln -s TARGET LINK_NAME

Where the -s makes it symbolic.

ln -s EXISTING_FILE_OR_DIRECTORY SYMLINK_NAME

ln -s target linkName

You can have a look at the man page here:

(Because an ASCII picture is worth a thousand characters.)

An arrow may be a helpful mnemonic, especially since that's almost exactly how it looks in Emacs' dired.

And big picture so you don't get it confused with the Windows' version

Linux:

ln -s target <- linkName

Windows:

mklink linkName -> target

You could also look at these as

ln -s "to-here" <- "from-here"
mklink "from-here" -> "to-here"

The from-here should not exist yet, it is to be created, while the to-here should already exist (IIRC).

(I always get mixed up on whether various commands and arguments should involve a pre-existing location, or one to be made.)

EDIT: It's still sinking in slowly for me; I have another way I've written in my notes.

ln -s (target exists) (link is made)
mklink (link is made) (target exists)

ln -s source_file target_file

To the original question:

'ln -s '+basebuild+'/IpDome-kernel/kernel /home/build/sandbox/gen2/basebuild/IpDome-kernel/kernal'

This will indeed create a symbolic link (-s) from the file/directory:

<basebuild>/IpDome-kernel/kernel

to your new link

/home/build/sandbox/gen2/basebuild/IpDome-kernel/kernal

Here's a few ways to help you remember:

First, there's the man page for ln. You can access this via searching "man ln" in google, or just open a terminal window and type man ln and you'll get the same information. The man page clearly states:

ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME (1st form)

If having to search or read through a man page every time isn't for you, maybe you'll have an easier time remembering that all nix commands work the same way:

cp /file/that/exists /location/for/new/file
mv /file/that/exists /location/its/moving/to
ln /file/that/exists /the/new/link

cp copies a file that currently exists (the first argument) to a new file (the second argument).
mv moves a file that currently exists (the first argument) to a new place (the second argument)
Likewise ln links a file that currently exists (the first argument) to a new link (the second argument)^*

The final option I would like to suggest is you can create your own man pages that are easy to read and easy (for you) to find/remember. Just make a simple shell script that gives you the hint you need. For example^♦:

In your .bash_aliases file you can place something like:

commandsfx() {
    echo "Symlink:  ln -s /path/to/file /path/to/symlink"
    echo "Copy:     cp /file/to/copy /destination/to/send/copy"
}

alias 'cmds'=commandsfx

Then when you need it, from the command line just type cmds and you'll get back the proper syntax in a way you can quickly read and understand it. You can make these functions as advanced as you'd like to get what what information you need, it's up to you. You could even make them interactive so you just have to follow the prompts.. something like:

makesymlink() {
    echo "Symlink name:"
    read sym
    echo "File to link to:"
    read fil
    ln -s $fil $sym
}

alias 'symlink'=makesymlink

^{* - well obviously they can all take different parameters and do different things and can work on files as well as directories... but the premise is the same
♦ - examples using the bash shell}

ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file [target_file]

    link, ln -- make links

        -s    Create a symbolic link.

    A symbolic link contains the name of the file to which it is linked. 

    An ln command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

Creating Symbolic links or Soft-links on Linux:

Open Bash prompt and type the below mentioned command to make a symbolic link to your file:

A) Goto the folder where you want to create a soft link and typeout the command as mentioned below:

$ ln -s (path-to-file) (symbolic-link-to-file)
$ ln -s /home/user/file new-file

B) Goto your new-file name path and type:

$ ls -lrt (To see if the new-file is linked to the file or not)

Example:

user@user-DT:[~/Desktop/soft]# ln -s /home/user/Desktop/soft/File_B /home/user/Desktop/soft/File_C
user@user-DT:[~/Desktop/soft]# ls -lrt
total 0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  0 Dec 27 16:51 File_B
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  0 Dec 27 16:51 File_A
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user 31 Dec 27 16:53 File_C -> /home/user/Desktop/soft/File_B


Note: Where, File_C -> /home/user/Desktop/soft/File_B  Means, File_C is symbolically linked to File_B

ln -s sourcepath linkpathname

Note:

-s makes symbolic links instead of hard links

If you are in the directory where you want to create symlink, then ignore second path.

cd myfolder
ln -s target

It will create symlink of target inside myfolder.

General syntax

ln -s TARGET LINK_NAME

This is Stack Overflow so I assume you want code:

All following code assumes that you want to create a symbolic link named /tmp/link that links to /tmp/realfile.

CAUTION: Although this code checks for errors, it does NOT check if /tmp/realfile actually exists ! This is because a dead link is still valid and depending on your code you might (rarely) want to create the link before the real file.

Shell (bash, zsh, ...)

#!/bin/sh
ln -s /tmp/realfile /tmp/link

Real simple, just like you would do it on the command line (which is the shell). All error handling is done by the shell interpreter. This code assumes that you have a working shell interpreter at /bin/sh .

If needed you could still implement your own error handling by using the $? variable which will only be set to 0 if the link was successfully created.