Truncate A File

Dovetails · 10-22-2005, 06:29 PM

I hope this is a simple question.

What's the quickest and easiest way to truncate a file to zero bytes?

I have a FreeBSD file server and I can just use the command:
truncate -s 0 filename

My CentOS3.5 machine does not seem to have the "truncate" command on it. If it does, I'm not finding it. There are man pages for "truncate" but the command is not found.

So, whats the easiest way to make a file zero bytes in Linux?

Thanks!

MensaWater · 10-22-2005, 06:37 PM

"> filename"

Doing a redirect to a file with no input makes it 0 bytes.

By the way that would work in BSD and other Unix flavors as well. I imagine the "truncate" command is designed more for removing SOME of the contents rather than all of them. Its a new one on me though so thanks for sharing it as I do have some BSD systems.

Dovetails · 10-22-2005, 06:58 PM

Thanks jlightner . . . that's about as simple as it can get!

Yes, the "truncate" command can be used to remove some of the contents but the -s switch sets the "size" of the resulting file so "-s 0" means make the file 0 bytes.

Thanks for the reply.