What is the simplest way to delete the contents of a file in BASH?

Question

I need to delete all lines in a file, but leave essentially an empty file with no content and no lines. As best I know, one can do this:

rm file.txt 2> /dev/null
touch file.txt

However, is there a simpler, more canonical solution in BASH?

you should look at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/980283/truncating-a-file-while-its-being-used-linux (as while a file is opened, it is still accessible even if it's "deleted") — Olivier Dulac, Mar 14 '14 at 10:30

score 18 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 14 '14 at 10:15

18

This is a pretty fast way I always use:

> file.txt

It completely empties the file and updates the modification time.

answered Mar 14 '14 at 10:15

fedorqui

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 14 '14 at 10:24

9

You can use truncate.

truncate -s 0 filename

answered Mar 14 '14 at 10:24

Kirby Todd

trikelef · Answer 3 · 2014-03-14T12:29:31.390

5

Another (brutal) way to empty a file would be the following:

cat /dev/null > filename

edited Mar 14 '14 at 12:29

answered Mar 14 '14 at 12:04

trikelef

3 Answers3