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Remove the contents of a file without deleting the file

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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Remove the contents of a file without deleting the file
# 8  
Old 11-28-2006
Quote:
Originally Posted by sumesh.abraham
sed '1q' inputfile >tmp
mv tmp inputfile

will not remove the first line.

sed '' filename > filename works!!

Madhan,
Can u pls explain cp /dev/null.. What is the advantage it brings over sed/ others...

Thanks
Sumesh

Forgot to add -n option
Code:
sed -n '1q' inputfile >tmp
mv tmp inputfile

# 9  
Old 11-28-2006
Thanks to all for providing the info.
sumesh.abraham
# 10  
Old 11-28-2006
I'm sure you got a good solution by now, but, just wanted to add that this also should work...

cat /dev/null > filename
# 11  
Old 12-02-2006
You already have responses but look this one (;
#!/usr/bin/perl
$file=join(" ",@ARGV);
if($file eq ""){
die "Usage:\n./$0 FILENAME";
}
open(FD,"> $file")|| die "Can't open to WRONLY";
print FD "";
close(FD);

----------------------cut here--------------------
perl Smilie
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