On Mon, Nov 19, 2001 at 10:39:39PM +0530, Tathagata Banerjee wrote:
> here is lost no. 200:
>
> ********************************************************************
> Sub: Creating an empty file LOST #200
>
> To quickly create an empty file, use "touch filename"
> or echo "" > filename
>
> ********************************************************************
>
> but an even simpler way is just to do a
>
> $ >filename
>
> no command is needed. just a hanging redirection sign will do it :-)
>
> this works in bash. i'm not sure about other shells.
>
> - tathagata.
>
---end quoted text---
I had included this LOST from the freebsd fortune. I suppose
it is better to explain this a bit. There are three things
which does almost similar functions:
touch filename ... essentially this updates the date/ time
stamp, and if file does not exist ... it
makes a new one. It does NOT overwrite an
existing file with the same name.
> filename ... This is supported by BSD shells like bash
ash ... AFAIK, not supported by ksh and
family.
cat "" > fname ... Works on all shells, but over-writes any
exiting file.
The same is also possible with "cat /dev/null > filename" ..
But NEVER make the mistake of doing a cat /dev/zero > fname!
This will fill your whole hard disk with a file which would
be difficult to delete !!!
Thanks for pointing this out anyway. I think I'll modify the
current LOST #200, I'll make a new LOST with hanging redire-
ction in your name ...
Bish
--
:
####[ Linux One Stanza Tip (LOST) ]###########################
Sub : Deleting dot files LOST #163
Doing a 'rm -f *' within a directory will remove all the files
within the directory but NOT invisible DOT (.) files. You need
to do a: '$rm .[A-Za-z0-9]*' # To delete DOT files
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