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What Does Sudo Ln -Sfn Do?

Alexander Ross • • 2 min read
What Does Sudo Ln -Sfn Do?

I installed JDK on my mac for Android studios (which I have done before) and I used Homebrew to install. At completion I got these suggestions? I would like to know if I want system Java wrappers to find JDK, Should I symlink it? and Why would I want it first in my path? Also I am using .zshrc as it is now default Catalina and wondering if I set $PATH variables the same way?

For the system Java wrappers to find this JDK, symlink it with
  sudo ln -sfn /usr/local/opt/openjdk/libexec/openjdk.jdk /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk.jdk

openjdk is keg-only, which means it was not symlinked into /usr/local,
because it shadows the macOS `java` wrapper.

If you need to have openjdk first in your PATH run:
  echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/openjdk/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

For compilers to find openjdk you may need to set:
  export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/openjdk/include"

1 Answer

ln is the command creating the links between files, here is man page.

ln -sfn means force creating a new symlink.

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Alexander Ross
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Alexander Ross

Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.