How to create file in linux

How to Create a File in Linux? [Linux Create File]

Do you know how to create a file in Linux? If not, then this article will help you with Linux create file commands.

List of content you will read in this article:

Anyone who uses Linux operating system daily should be familiar with how to create a text file in Linux or Linux create file command. A new file may be created using either the command line or the desktop file manager. You should have been granted writing permissions on the parent directory to generate a new file. If you don’t, you’ll get a permission denied mistake. This tutorial will provide brief information about how to create a file in Linux.

How to Create a Text File in Linux? [Varius Methods]

Now we will explain various methods to create a file in Linux easily:

1. Using the Touch Command to Create a File

We may use the touch command to change the timestamps of current files and folders and create new, empty files. The touch command is the simplest and most unforgettable way to generate new, empty folders.

To make a new file, use the touch command and the name of the file you want to make:

If filename.txt does not exist, the command above will generate it; otherwise, the timestamps will be changed. To make several files at the same time, split the file names with space as listed in the below Linux command.

touch filename1.txt filename2.txt filename3.txt

2. Using the Redirection Operator to Make a File

You may use redirection to take a command’s output and use it as input for another command or file. There are two ways to assign the output to a file. The >> operator appends the output to a current file, while the > operator overwrites it. In Linux, this is the quickest way to make a new file. When using redirection to create a file, you should take care not to delete a significant existing file. To make an empty zero-length buffer, specifically indicate the name of the file you want to construct after the redirection operator:

3. Using the Cat Command to Create Text File

Cat command is mostly used to read and concatenate files, but it can also create new ones. To make a new file, use the cat button, followed by the redirection operator > and the new file’s name. Click Enter to type your email, and then press CTRL +D keys to save the files.

4. Using the Echo Command to Create a File

The echo command outputs the strings passed as arguments to standard output, which can be forwarded to a register. For creating a new file in linux, type echo followed by the text you want to print, and then use the redirection operator > to write the output to the new file.

echo «Some line» > filename.txt

If you want to make an empty file, just type:

5. Using Heredoc to Create a File

Heredoc is a form of redirection that lets you give a command multiple lines of input. This approach is typically used when you need to generate a file from a shell script containing several text lines. To build a new file named filename.txt, for example, use the following code:

cat filename.txt
Some lines
Some other lines
EOF

Variables, special characters, and instructions will all be used in the heredoc’s body.

6. How to Create a Large Text File

You may want to generate a big data file for testing purposes on occasion. When you want to measure the write speed of your drive or the download speed of your link, this is handy.

6.1 Making use of the dd command

The dd command is most often used to copy and transfer files. To make a 2GB file called 2G.test, execute the following commands:

dd if=/dev/zero of=2G.test bs=1 count=0 seek=2G

The fallocate function is a command-line feature that allows you to assign actual disc space to data. The command below will generate a new file called 2G.test with a 2GB size:

Conclusion

Using different commands and redirection, we have learned how to create a file in Linux/Linux create file command using the command line functions. We hope that our described information can help you create a new file in Linux without having any trouble. if you have any other suggestions for creating a new file, you can comment via the below comment section.

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4 Ways to Create New File in Linux

Linux based operating systems are known for their users’ heavy use of command line for performing not only complicated automation but also the most trivial of tasks. However, with the steady growth of Linux distributions in the home desktop market, the onus is on the developers to make the graphical interface as lay user friendly as possible.

Today, we will see various ways to perform a simple and trivial task; creating a new file, in Linux using the command line as well as the GUI.

Create File using Touch Command

The touch command in Linux is used to create an empty file and the syntax for creating an empty file is as easy as:

To create multiple files at once, pass multiple file names as arguments:

Create New File in Linux

The touch command will throw an error if any of the files already exist.

You can also create the file in another directory by specifying the full path to the directory location.

Create File in Different Directory

Create File Using Vim and Nano Editors

Vim is a very popular text editor in Linux distributions. Although the command line utility nano is the one available by default, users generally prefer Vim.

Install Vim in Debian and its derived distributions by running:

In RedHat and its derived distributions, install Vim with Yum:

Creating a new file is quite easy using text editors. You can create an empty file by creating a new file for writing and save it without writing anything to the file.

The following syntaxes can be used to create a new file using Vim and Nano respectively:

Once the editors open with ‘new_filename‘, users can now write to the file if needed. If writing to file is done, or if the file is to be left empty, do the following to save the file:

Create File Using Redirection Operator

A redirection operator is an operator used in the Linux command line to write output to a file or to read input from a file.

We use the former of these two operators (‘>’) to create a new file with output from a command. For example, to write the output of command ls to a new file, run:

Write Command Output to File

To create an empty file using this, simple echo command and empty string and redirect it.

Create File Using Redirect Operator

Create File Using File Manager

Lastly, we will see how to create a new file from the GUI. Open Nautilus either by running the command ‘nautilus’, from the left-hand side dock or from the Applications menu, depending on your Linux distribution.

Nautilus File Manager

Go to the folder you want to create the new file in. For example, let’s create a new file in the folder ‘Documents’.

Documents Directory

Create New Empty Document

Note: In newer versions of Ubuntu, the option ‘New Document’ might be missing. To fix this simply run the following:

Right-click on the new file, click ‘Rename’, and enter a new name for the file.

Rename New Empty Document New Empty Document

Conclusion

We learned about multiple ways to create a new file in Linux. There are obviously, even more ways to create a new file, and every individual application usually has the ability to create a new file of its respective format. Eg. Image editors export files to image formats like JPEG and PNG, audio editors to MP3, M4A, etc.

Let us know in the comments below how you go about creating a new file in your Linux system!

4 Ways to Create a Text File in Linux Terminal

In this Linux beginner series, you’ll learn various methods to create a text file in Linux terminal.

If you have used the desktop oriented operating system such as Windows, creating file is a piece of cake. You right click in the file explorer and you would find the option of creating new file.

Things won’t look the same when you are in a command line environment. There is no right click option here. So how do you create a file in Linux then? Let me show you that.

Create file in Linux command line

There are various ways of creating a new file in Linux terminal. I’ll show you the commands one by one. I am using Ubuntu here but creating files in Ubuntu terminal is the same as any other Linux distribution.

1. Create an empty file using touch command

One of the biggest usages of the touch command in Linux is to create a new empty file. The syntax is super simple.

If the file doesn’t exist already, it will create a new empty file. If a file with the same name exists already, it will update the timestamps of the file.

2. Create files using cat command

Another popular way of creating new file is by using the cat command in Linux. The cat command is mostly used for viewing the content of a file but you can use it to create new file as well.

You can write some new text at this time if you want but that’s not necessary. To save and exit, use Ctrl+D terminal shortcut.

If the file with that name already exists and you write new text in it using the cat command, the new lines will be appended at the end of the file.

3. Create new file using echo command

The main use of the echo command is to simply repeat (echo) what you type on the screen. But if you use the redirection with echo, you can create a new file.

To create a new empty file using echo you can use something like this:

The newly created filename.txt file will have the following text: This is a sample text. You can view the file in Linux using cat or other viewing commands.

You are not obliged to put a sample text with echo. You can create an (almost) empty file using the echo command like this:

This will create a new file with just one empty line. You can check the number of lines with wc command.

4. Create a new file using a text editor like Nano or Vim

The last method in this series is the use of a text editor. A terminal-based text editor such as Emacs, Vim or Nano can surely be used for creating a new file in Linux.

Before you use these text editors, you should make sure that you know the basics such as saving an existing from the editor. Unlike the GUI tools, using Ctrl+S in the terminal won’t save the file. It could, in fact, send your terminal into a seemingly frozen state from which you recover using Ctrl+Q.

Let’s say you are going to use Vim editor. Make sure that you are aware of the basic vim commands, and then open a new file with it like this:

What’s your favorite command?

So, I just shared 4 different ways of creating a file in Linux. Personally, I prefer using touch for creating empty file and Vim if I have to edit the file. On a related note, you may want to learn about the file command in Linux that is helpful in determining the actual type of the file.

Which command do you prefer here? Please share your views in the comment section below.

Linux Create File

By Balaji S

Introduction to Linux Create File

In Linux Operating System creating a file is an important task since the user or administrator may be required to create a file multiple times in a single day. A file can be created either using the command line or by using the file manager. In this article, we will discuss multiple ways of creating a file. Commands like touch, echo cat and print and text editors like nano, vim and vi are used to create a new file.

How to Create a File?

Before creating a file you should check whether you have to write permissions in the parent directory. If you don’t have write permission then you will receive permission denied error. Use the ls command to view the data of the directory.

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1. Using Touch Command

The touch command is one of the easiest ways to create a file in the Linux shell. To create a new file just type the touch command followed by the name of the file with the extension

Example:

$ touch touch.txt
$ touch touch.docx

If the file doesn’t exist, then the touch command will create one and if the file already exists then the command will modify its timestamps. While using this command we cannot write any data while creating a new file. By default the size of the newly created file is 0KB.

To view the newly created file using the ls command.

Command:

To create multiple files simultaneously enter the file names and separate them with spaces.

2. Creating File with Redirection Operator

The redirect symbol (>) is also used to create a new file. As the name suggests the redirection operator pipes the output of the command to another command or file. To create a file using this operator, just type the file name after the redirection operator. Even in this method, you cannot enter the text directly. Unlike touch command, you can create only one file at a time. This is the shortest method to create a file in Linux OS.

If the file name already exists it will overwrite the file, otherwise the new file will be created.

3. Using Cat Command to Create File

We can also use the cat command to create a file. One important advantage of this method is that you can start adding text to your file immediately. To create a new file just type the cat command followed by the redirection operator and then the filename and then press the Enter key.

Then you can enter the text immediately to your file. After completing, press Ctrl + D to save the file.

To view the file type the command below

4. Using Echo Command to Create File

This command prints the text that is entered as parameters to the command which is then redirected to the file. To create a file type the echo command, then type the text you want to display and then use the redirect symbol to write the contents to the file that you desire to create.

Use the following command line to create a file using echo command.

$ echo “ Linux is simple and easy to learn” > echosample.txt

To create only an empty file use the following command.

How to Create File Using Herdoc?

Heredoc or Here document refers to a kind of redirection that allows a user to pass multiple lines to a particular command. This method is used when you need to create a file that contains multiple lines.

Use the following command to create a file using heredoc

$ sample.txt
first line
second line
third line
EOF

1. Using DD Command

Sometimes we need to create large files for testing the write speed or testing the network speed. dd command is used when there is a need to create large files.

Example: To create a file of size 1 GB run the following command.

$ dd if=/dev/zero of=sample.test bs=1 count=0 seek=sample

Here sample.test is the file name.

2. Create File with fallocate Command

fallocate is a utility command which allocates real disk space for a file.

The above command will create a file named sample.test of size 1 GB.

3. Create File With Print Command

This command is similar to the echo command and it provides some formatting functions. To create a file containing a single text line, use the following command.

$ printf ‘first line\n’ sample.txt

To add two lines, use the \n option to separate each line.

$ printf ‘first line\n second line’ sample.txt

Now let us see how to create a new file using text editors.

This is the oldest of all text editors in Linux system. It is used for editing text files directly.

To create a new file using Vi text editor, type the following:

Your screen will change to text editor mode. Press the I key to change to insert mode. Now type the contents of your file. To save the file and exit press the button Esc:x and press Enter key.

Output:

You may see that the Vi editor is not so user-friendly. Vim is a modified version of the Vi editor. Vim stands for Vi modified.

Use the following command to create a new file.

The screen will look like the Vi editor screen. Press I key to type the text and after typing, save the file and exit by typing the following.

Output:

Nano editor is the latest and much easier editor of three text editors that we have seen so far.

To create a new file, type the following command.

On typing the above command you will be directly taken to the editing mode. It will also display a list of useful commands at the bottom of your screen. Enter the text and press Ctrl + O to save the file. To exit the nano editor press Ctrl+X.

Output:

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to Linux Create File. Here we discuss the different methods of creating a new file in the Linux Operating System and its Examples along with its Code Implementation. You can also go through our other suggested articles to learn more –

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7 Ways to Create a File in Linux Terminal

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a file from a Linux terminal. There are many text editors like (vim, nano, vi) and many commands like (cat, echo, printf, touch) to create a file in the Linux operating system via command line. Here will explain the following linux tools.

1) Create a file with touch command

We will use touch command with any extension to create file, this command will create an empty file touch.txt in your current directory as an example below.

To see the file type command below.

2) Create a file with cat command

We will use cat command to create file, this command will create an empty file cat.txt in your current directory as an example below, but you must add text in the file.

Add the text below.

To open the file, we will use cat command to open it.

3) Create a file with echo command

We will use echo command to create file, this command will create a file echo.txt in your current directory as an example below, but you should add text in the line command.

To see the file,type command below.

To open the file, we will use cat command to open it.

4) Create a file with printf command

We will use printf command to create file, this command will create a file printf.txt in your current directory as an example below, but you should add text in the line command.

To see the file type command below.

To open the file, we will use cat command to open it.

5) Create a file with nano text editor

To create a file using nano text editor, first install it, after that type command below and the text editor will be opened to adding text.

Add the text below.

To open the file, We will use nano command to open it.

6) Create a file with vi text editor

To create a file using vi text editor, type command below and the text editor will open the file, but you can’t add any text before converting it to insert mode by typing i character.

Add the text below.

To open the file, we will use vi command to open it.

7) Create a file with vim text editor

To create a file using vim text editor, type command below and the text editor will open the file, but you can’t add any text before converting it to insert mode by typing i character.

Add the text below.

To open the file, we will use vim command to open it.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned the different ways to create a file from Linux terminal. Hope you enjoyed reading and please leave your comments in the below comment section.