Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!mips!pacbell.com!pacbell!sactoh0!jak
From: jak@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US (Jay A. Konigsberg)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix.sco
Subject: Re: emptying a file and keeping its ownership
Message-ID: <4597@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US>
Date: 5 Jan 91 18:28:55 GMT
References: <1990Dec31.214030.7816@athena.mit.edu> <1991Jan1.040621.27634@NCoast.ORG> <187@raysnec.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Sacramento Public Access Unix, Sacramento, Ca.
Lines: 26

In article <187@raysnec.UUCP> shwake@raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake) writes:
>allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR) writes:
>>	% echo > file
>>	% ls -s file
>>	0 file
>
>	Not quite. On the systems I know, echo outputs a new line character.
>Thus your ostensibly zero'ed file would have a size of 1 byte.

Well, I can think of three solutions:

one:
    $ echo "\c" > file

two:
    $ cp /dev/null file  # or /dev/zero

three:
    $ > file

Choose ...

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Jay @ SAC-UNIX, Sacramento, Ca.   UUCP=...pacbell!sactoh0!jak
If something is worth doing, it's worth doing correctly.