deleting file-content

[ovince]

hi

is there an easy way to delete the content of the file but leaving an empty files in the directory?

oliver

 

[LKBrwnDBA]

Try:

>TheFile
#-- or --
cp /dev/null > TheFile

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The person who says it can't be done should not interrupt the person doing it. -- Chinese proverb

 

[khalidaaa]

I usually use cat!

cat /dev/null > TheFile

Regards,
Khalid

 

[bigoldbulldog]

Even shorter:

 > TheFile

Cheers,
ND

 

[p5wizard]

That "null" command only works in Bourne or Korn shell

In which case this is one byte shorter still:

>TheFile

Unless if Korn shell and the noclobber option is in use (set -o noclobber), then it won't erase existing files... But you can still erase a file by temporarily overriding the noclobber option:

>|TheFile

HTH,

p5wizard