Creating a File
July 19, 1998
Of course, the easiest way to create a file is to
use a word processor like vi or emacs. However, there are a
few utilities which you can use to create files from the
command line as well.
The "touch" Utility
The touch utility simply creates an empty file of a
given name using the syntax:
touch filename
If the file already exists, it will modify the access time
without changing the contents of the file.
The touch utility offers the following options:
touch [options] MMDDhhmmYY filelist
| Option |
Explanation |
| -a |
Specifies the access time |
| -c |
Instructs touch to not create a file not specified in the
list |
| -m |
Specifies the modify time |
| MMDDhhmmYY |
The time and date for setting files |
| filelist |
Space delimited list of files to apply time to. |
Using Redirection
A more useful tool for creating files from the command line
is redirection. Typically, you will use redirection to save
the output of a command in the body of a file. for example,
check out how we use redirection in the following example to
crate a file with the directory listing.
![[Example of output redirection]](Images/out.gif)
Additional Resources:
Reading a File
Introduction to UNIX for Web Developers | Table of Contents
Copying Files
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