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Touch a file in Linux (programming.dev)

submitted 8 months ago by chraebsli@programming.dev to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev

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[–] 48954246@lemmy.world 21 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (7 children)

Feels dangerous to run. What happens if the file already exists and has something important in it?

touch -a is probably better

[–] gaterush@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago (6 children)

The other command could just be printf '' >> file to not overwrite it. Or even simpler >>file and then interrupt

[–] owsei@programming.dev 10 points 8 months ago (5 children)

or :>>file then you don't need to interrupt

[–] gaterush@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

that's awesome, did not know about that handy operator!

[–] owsei@programming.dev 3 points 8 months ago

Yeah!

it's basically a noop, I use it as a placeholder when I'm writing a script, since bash doesn't accept code blocks with no commands

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