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Generate 100 Character Fixed Length Empty File

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# 1  
Old 02-02-2011
Generate 100 Character Fixed Length Empty File
Hello Everyone,

I'm running AIX 5.3 and need to generate a 100 character fixed length empty file from within a bash script that I am developing.

I searched and was able to find:

Code:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test/path/file count=100

however my understanding is that this will generate a file of a fixed size which will not actually be equal to a 100 character file.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in Advance.
-JVT
# 2  
Old 02-02-2011
Another way could be something like:
Code:
awk 'BEGIN{printf("%100s","")}' > /test/path/file

# 3  
Old 02-02-2011
Thanks that seems to be exactly what I needed!
# 4  
Old 02-02-2011
One way to correct the dd:
Code:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test/path/file bs=100 count=1

# 5  
Old 02-02-2011
alternatively
Code:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test/path/file bs=1 count=100

# 6  
Old 02-02-2011
Or, any of the following, lol

Code:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test/path/file bs=50 count=2
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test/path/file bs=25 count=4
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test/path/file bs=20 count=5
 
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test/path/file bs=10 count=10
 
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test/path/file bs=2 count=50
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test/path/file bs=4 count=25
dd if=/dev/zero of=/test/path/file bs=5 count=20

# 7  
Old 02-03-2011

What do you mean by "an empty file"? If it is 100 characters or bytes long, it is not empty.

To fill it with spaces, you don't need any external command:
Code:
printf "%100s" ' ' > "$file"
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