ways to clean a file

[rogsal]

Hi!

Normally when I want to delete everything in a file without deleting the file itself I do:
# >filename

However this doesnt work well when combinig it with rsh calls:
# rsh loghost >/var/adm/logfile
which will create a file on my local machine and then just hangs there...

To make it even more difficult I have to do it in two steps:
# rsh server rsh xstation >/var/adm/logfile

And finally to make it almost impossible, the log rotates and gets a number at the end which differs every time my script runs:
# rsh server rsh xstation >/var/adm/logfile.???

So, is there another command besides '>' that emptys a file??

regards
Roger

 

[KenCunningham]

Not sure if this will help, but touch <file> is (AFAIK) the equivalent of > in this context.

 

[rogsal]

But touch would just update the date on the file not remove its content...

 

[KenCunningham]

Yes, apologies for my confusion!

 

[rogsal]

No problem.... I'll fixed it with
cat /dev/null > filename

 

[stefanhei]

Hi.
Roger, you may use your original syntax too:

rsh loghost ">/var/adm/logfile"

Without the quotes you redirect output of rsh.

Stefan