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From: peterb@pbear.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.unix
Subject: Creating empty files using SH
Message-ID: <7500003@pbear.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Jun-85 11:17:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: pbear.7500003
Posted: Mon Jun 17 11:17:00 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Jun-85 08:59:20 EDT
Lines: 25
Nf-ID: #N:pbear:7500003:000:738
Nf-From: pbear!peterb    Jun 17 11:17:00 1985




A while ago, somebody asked why people use "cat /dev/null > file" to create
empty files, and somebody retorted that touch does the same thing, and then
someone replied, "no touch just changes modify times, does no empty the file",
etc...

I was reading S.R.Bourne's "THe UNIX System", and Bourne covers one of the
simplest was of doing it under the bourne shell.

The command:

		for i do >$i ; done

creates empty files for each parameter that is supplied, such that if a
file contains this command and has execute permissions, the following command

		create alpha beta

will create the two empty files alpha and beta in the current directory and
ensure that they are empty.

Peter Barada
{ihnp4!inmet|{harvard|cca}!ima}!pbear!peterb