Best 4 Ways To Create a File in Linux Command Line

In this guide, we aim to demonstrate several Different Ways To Create a File in the Linux Command Line. Creating files in Linux is a fundamental task, and the command line offers a variety of tools to accomplish this. You can easily use various Linux commands to create a file. This article will guide you through creating empty files, creating files and opening them in an editor, and creating files and writing content to them. Let’s explore how to Create a File in Linux Command Line.

To Create a File in Linux Command Line, you will need access to a Linux server, either as the root user or as a non-root user with sudo privileges. If you need assistance setting up your server, resources are available online that provide initial server setup guides for various Linux distributions.

Now, let’s delve into the steps below to explore different Linux commands to Create a File in Linux Command Line.

Step 1 – Create an Empty File in the Linux Command Line

We’ll begin by exploring how to create an empty file in Linux. Several commands can achieve this.

Touch Command

The first Linux command-line utility we’ll use is the touch command. This is a simple and efficient way to create an empty file. For example:

touch file.txt

This command will create an empty file named file.txt. If you then use the cat command to view the file’s contents, it will display nothing because the file is indeed empty.

Echo Command

Another command that can be used to create an empty file is the echo command. While typically used for displaying text, it can be cleverly used to create empty files as well. The syntax is as follows:

echo -n > file2.txt

The -n option tells echo not to print a newline character, and the > redirects the output (which is nothing, thanks to -n) to a new file named file2.txt.

Greater Than Operator >

The redirection operator > is a simple way to create empty files. It works by redirecting the output of a command (or nothing at all) into a file.

> file3.txt

This single line creates an empty file named file3.txt. You can verify its creation using the ls command.

Printf Command

The printf command can also create empty files. Similar to the echo command, we can use empty strings to effectively create an empty file. Here’s how:

printf '' > file4.txt

The two single quotes '' represent an empty string, which is then redirected to a new file named file4.txt. Again, the ls command will confirm the file’s creation.

Step 2 – Create an Empty File and Open it in the Linux Command Line

To Create a File in Linux Command Line and open it simultaneously, text editors like Nano, Vi, and Vim are your best friends. When you invoke these editors with a filename, they will check for the file’s existence. If the file exists, it will be opened. However, if the file does not exist, it will be created and then opened.

For example, let’s use the Vi Editor to create a Python file:

vi app.py

This command will open the app.py file in the Vi editor. If app.py doesn’t exist, it will be created.

~
~
~
"app.py" [New File]

Because we want to create an empty file, we don’t need to write anything to it. To exit the Vi editor without saving, you can use the command :q!.

Note: If you don’t write anything to the file and exit without saving, the new file will not be created. You can confirm this by using the ls and cat commands.

Step 3 – Create a File and Write Into It in the Linux Command Line

Now let’s explore how to Create a File in Linux Command Line and write content to it. Similar to creating empty files with the echo and printf commands, these commands can also be used to write content to files.

Write into files with Echo and Printf Linux Commands

The echo command is a versatile tool for creating files and adding content. For instance, we can create a text file and write a sample text to it with the following syntax:

echo 'This is a test text file from orcacore' > file5.txt

This command creates (or overwrites) file5.txt and writes the specified text string into it. You can verify the file’s content with the following command:

cat file5.txt

Output
This is a test text file from orcacore

Similarly, you can Create a File in Linux Command Line and write to it using the printf command, mirroring the functionality of the echo command:

printf 'This is a test text file from orcacore' > file6.txt

Write into files with cat Linux Command

The cat command, typically used for displaying file contents, can also be used to create files and write to them using the redirection operator >.

cat > file7.txt

After running this command, the terminal will wait for you to input text. Any text you type will be written to file7.txt. To finish writing and save the file, press Ctrl+D.

orca@deb:~# cat > file7.txt
This is a test file
^C

You can then verify the content of the file using the cat command:

cat file7.txt

Step 4 – Combine Multiple Files into One File in Linux

At times, you might want to combine the contents of several files into a single file. The cat command provides a straightforward way to achieve this. For example, let’s create two files and add some content to them:

echo 'testcontent1' > f1
echo 'testcontent2' > f2

Now, to combine the contents of f1 and f2 into a new file named f3, use the following cat command:

cat f1 f2 > f3

Verifying the content of f3 should reveal the combined content of f1 and f2:

cat f3

Output
testcontent1
testcontent2

Furthermore, the mv command can be used to rename or relocate file content. If the destination file doesn’t exist, the mv command will create it. For instance, to move the content of f3 to a new file named file8.txt, use the following command:

mv f3 file8.txt

Verifying the new file should show the combined contents of the original files:

cat file8.txt

Output
testcontent1
testcontent2

That’s it! You’re done.

Conclusion

In this article, you’ve learned various ways to Create a File in Linux Command Line, write content into it, and combine multiple files into a new file. These commands are essential knowledge for any Linux user.

Hope you enjoy using it. You may also be interested in these articles:

Uninstall and Remove the PPA Repository From Ubuntu and Debian

Using Fasd in Linux for Quick Access to Files & Directories

Tail Command in Linux for Logs

Alternative Solutions for Creating Files in Linux

While the above methods are commonly used, here are two alternative approaches to create files in the Linux command line:

1. The dd command

The dd command is primarily used for copying and converting data, but it can also be employed to create files of a specific size, including empty files.

Explanation:

The dd command reads from an input file (if) and writes to an output file (of). By specifying /dev/null as the input, we read nothing. The bs option specifies the block size (the amount of data read/written at a time), and count specifies the number of blocks to read/write. Setting count to 0 effectively creates an empty file.

Code Example:

dd if=/dev/null of=file9.txt bs=1 count=0

This command creates an empty file named file9.txt.

2. Using truncate command

The truncate command is designed specifically for shrinking or extending the size of a file to a specified size. It’s an efficient way to create an empty file or to resize an existing one.

Explanation:

The truncate command with the -s 0 option sets the size of the file to zero bytes, effectively creating an empty file. If the file doesn’t exist, it will be created.

Code Example:

truncate -s 0 file10.txt

This will create an empty file named file10.txt. If file10.txt already existed, its contents would be removed. The beauty of the truncate command is its directness and ease of understanding. This makes it a very useful and clean way to Create a File in Linux Command Line.