Hi all,

Can any one tell me how to empty the contents of a file in unix without using the following sequence : rm <file> ; touch <file>

is there any command in unix??
is it possible through shell scripting? If so, how?

-krishna

echo "" > file 
cp /dev/null file
dd if=/dev/zero of=output.file bs=1 count=1

cat /dev/null > your_file

and this,

>filename

does this really work??? where and how to use this at the shell prompt??

I think this works only with ksh/bash shell not in csh. you just have to enter the command in your prompt.

Here are other ways not mentioned yet:

: > file
cat file > file      ## Gives error message in ksh, but it works.
head file > file
tail file > file