How to create a new file in linux

How to create a new file: 1. Use the redirection character ">" to create a file, the syntax is "> file name"; 2. Use the touch command to create a file, the syntax is "touch file name"; 3 , use the echo command to create a file; 4. use printf to create a file; 5. use cat to create a file; 6. use the vi/vim command to create a file; 7. use nano to create a file; 8. use head to create a file ;9. Use tail to create a file; 10. Use truncate to create a file.

#The operating environment of this tutorial: linux7.3 system, Dell G3 computer.

We all know that on Linux, everything including devices are files. Linux administrators should perform file creation activities multiple times per day (perhaps 20, 50, or even more, depending on their environment).

Efficiently creating a file is a very important ability. Why do I say efficient? If you know a few ways to perform your current activities efficiently, you can do more with less. This will save you a lot of time. You can use this useful time on other important things.

The following will introduce multiple methods of creating files on Linux. I suggest you choose a few simple and efficient ones to assist your work. You do not need to install any of the following commands as they are already installed on your system as part of the Linux core tools.

Creating a file can be done in the following six ways:

> : The standard redirection character allows us to create an empty file of 0KB. touch : If the file does not exist, the touch command will create an empty 0KB file. echo : Display a line of text through a parameter. printf : Used to display the given text in the terminal. cat : It concatenates and prints files to standard output. vi / vim : Vim is a text editor that is upward compatible with Vi. It is commonly used for editing various types of plain text. nano : is a simple and user-friendly editor. It replicates the look and benefits of pico , but is free software. head : Used to print part of the beginning of a file. tail : Used to print the last part of a file. truncate : Used to reduce or expand the size of the file to the specified size. Creating a file using the redirection character (>) on Linux The standard redirection character allows us to create an empty file of 0KB. It is typically used to redirect the output of a command to a new file. When using the redirection symbol without a command, it creates a file.

But it does not allow you to enter any text into the file when creating it. However it is very simple and useful for less diligent administrators. Just enter the redirection character followed by the file name you want.

$ > daygeek.txt Use the ls command to view the file just created.

$ ls -lh daygeek.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 0 Feb 4 02:00 daygeek.txt Use the touch command to create a file on Linux touch command is often used to access each file and the modification time is updated to the current time.

If the specified file name does not exist, a new file will be created. touch does not allow us to create a file and enter some text into it at the same time. It creates an empty 0KB file by default.

$ touch daygeek1.txt Use the ls command to view the file just created.

$ ls -lh daygeek1.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 0 Feb 4 02:02 daygeek1.txt Creating a file using the echo command on Linux echo is built into most operating systems. It is commonly used in scripts, batch files, and as part of a single command that inserts text.

It allows you to enter some text into a file when it is created. Of course it also allows you to enter some text into it later.

$ echo "2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux" > daygeek2.txt Use the ls command to view the file just created.

$ ls -lh daygeek2.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 49 Feb 4 02:04 daygeek2.txt You can use the cat command to view the contents of the file.

$ cat daygeek2.txt 2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux You can use two redirectors ( >> ) to add other content to the same file.

$ echo "It's FIVE years old blog" >> daygeek2.txt You can use the cat command to view the added content.

$ cat daygeek2.txt 2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux It's FIVE years old blog 在 Linux 上使用 printf 命令创建一个新的文件 printf 命令也可以以类似 echo 的方式执行。

printf 命令常用来显示在终端窗口给出的字符串。 printf 可以有格式说明符、转义序列或普通字符。

$ printf "2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux\n" > daygeek3.txt 使用 ls 命令查看刚刚创建的文件。

$ ls -lh daygeek3.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 48 Feb 4 02:12 daygeek3.txt 使用 cat 命令查看文件的内容。

$ cat daygeek3.txt 2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux 你可以使用两个重定向符 ( >> ) 添加其他的内容到同一个文件中去。

$ printf "It's FIVE years old blog\n" >> daygeek3.txt 你可以使用 cat 命令查看这个文件中添加的内容。

$ cat daygeek3.txt 2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux It's FIVE years old blog 在 Linux 中使用 cat 创建一个文件 cat 表示 串联(concatenate) 。在 Linux 经常用于读取一个文件中的数据。

cat 是在类 Unix 系统中最常使用的命令之一。它提供了三个与文本文件相关的功能：显示一个文件的内容、组合多个文件的内容到一个输出以及创建一个新的文件。（LCTT 译注：如果 cat 命令后如果不带任何文件的话，下面的命令在回车后也不会立刻结束，回车后的操作可以按 Ctrl-C 或 Ctrl-D 来结束。）

$ cat > daygeek4.txt 2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux It's FIVE years old blog 使用 ls 命令查看创建的文件。

$ ls -lh daygeek4.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 74 Feb 4 02:18 daygeek4.txt 使用 cat 命令查看文件的内容。

$ cat daygeek4.txt 2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux It's FIVE years old blog 如果你想向同一个文件中添加其他内容，使用两个连接的重定向符（ >> ）。

$ cat >> daygeek4.txt This website is maintained by Magesh M, It's licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. 你可以使用 cat 命令查看添加的内容。

$ cat daygeek4.txt 2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux It's FIVE years old blog This website is maintained by Magesh M, It's licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. 在 Linux 上使用 vi/vim 命令创建一个文件 vim 是一个向上兼容 vi 的文本编辑器。它通常用来编辑所有种类的纯文本。在编辑程序时特别有用。

vim 中有很多功能可以用于编辑单个文件。

$ vi daygeek5.txt

2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux It's FIVE years old blog 使用 ls 查看刚才创建的文件。

$ ls -lh daygeek5.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 75 Feb 4 02:23 daygeek5.txt 使用 cat 命令查看文件的内容。

$ cat daygeek5.txt 2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux It's FIVE years old blog 在 Linux 上使用 nano 命令创建一个文件 nano 是一个编辑器，它是一个自由版本的 pico 克隆。 nano 是一个小且用户友好的编辑器。它复制了 pico 的外观及优点，并且是一个自由软件，它添加了 pico 缺乏的一系列特性，像是打开多个文件、逐行滚动、撤销/重做、语法高亮、行号等等。

$ nano daygeek6.txt

2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux It's FIVE years old blog This website is maintained by Magesh M, It's licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. 使用 ls 命令查看创建的文件。

$ ls -lh daygeek6.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 148 Feb 4 02:26 daygeek6.txt 使用 cat 命令来查看一个文件的内容。

$ cat daygeek6.txt 2daygeek.com is a best Linux blog to learn Linux It's FIVE years old blog This website is maintained by Magesh M, It's licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. 在 Linux 上使用 head 命令创建一个文件 head 命令通常用于输出一个文件开头的一部分。它默认会打印一个文件的开头 10 行到标准输出。如果有多个文件，则每个文件前都会有一个标题，用来表示文件名。

$ head -c 0K /dev/zero > daygeek7.txt 使用 ls 命令查看创建的文件。

$ ls -lh daygeek7.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 0 Feb 4 02:30 daygeek7.txt 在 Linux 上使用 tail 创建一个文件 tail 命令通常用来输出一个文件最后的一部分。它默认会打印每个文件的最后 10 行到标准输出。如果有多个文件，则每个文件前都会有一个标题，用来表示文件名。

$ tail -c 0K /dev/zero > daygeek8.txt 使用 ls 命令查看创建的文件。

$ ls -lh daygeek8.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 0 Feb 4 02:31 daygeek8.txt 在 Linux 上使用 truncate 命令创建一个文件 truncate 命令通常用作将一个文件的尺寸缩小或者扩展为某个指定的尺寸。

$ truncate -s 0K daygeek9.txt 使用 ls 命令检查创建的文件。

$ ls -lh daygeek9.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 0 Feb 4 02:37 daygeek9.txt 在这篇文章中，我使用这十个命令分别创建了下面的这十个文件。

$ ls -lh daygeek* -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 0 Feb 4 02:02 daygeek1.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 74 Feb 4 02:07 daygeek2.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 74 Feb 4 02:15 daygeek3.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 148 Feb 4 02:20 daygeek4.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 75 Feb 4 02:23 daygeek5.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 148 Feb 4 02:26 daygeek6.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 148 Feb 4 02:32 daygeek7.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 148 Feb 4 02:32 daygeek8.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 148 Feb 4 02:38 daygeek9.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 daygeek daygeek 0 Feb 4 02:00 daygeek.txt 相关推荐：《 Linux视频教程 》

How to create a new file in linux

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