Comments on: How to empty a file without deleting and recreating it?

By: Sinan E.

Sinan E. — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:22:11 +0000

> filename

Saved my life. Thanks.

By: VaibhaV Sharma

VaibhaV Sharma — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:27:50 +0000

Ah, about the echo > filename, it will work on any shell as compared to the “> filename” but some apps don’t like the one newline character that echo leaves in the file. So edit the file with vi, dd the first line, save and you are done.

By: aamod

aamod — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:31:48 +0000

you can also use

cat > [the filename u want to clear]

Press Ctrl D..
You’re done….

By: Kartik Mistry

Kartik Mistry — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:43:10 +0000

cat has supercow power!

cat /dev/cdrom > foo.iso to create iso from cdrom

By: alephnull

alephnull — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:59:15 +0000

:> is the POSIX way, iirc. The dummy placeholder : makes it work on some shells where a plain > doesn’t.

By: James Urquhart

James Urquhart — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 09:50:32 +0000

Wow.

I’m in awe. I’ll have to remember these next time i am working with log files and such!

By: Tejas Dinkar

Tejas Dinkar — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:49:16 +0000

Try

> filename

Yes, I get shortest command prize

By: VaibhaV Sharma

VaibhaV Sharma — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:47:44 +0000

try

echo > filename

By: Atul

Atul — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:44:17 +0000

Try

echo -n > file