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Comment by memset | Hacker News Reader

You may also create new empty files by saying `touch filename`. This saves three keystrokes (which includes an annoying `>` symbol, requiring the shift key) as compared to the aforementioned `cat` method!

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Or, at least when running Bash (possibly sh, didn't try), just

   >foo

also works to create file "foo".

That does not work, but

  :>foo

(the happy file creation operator) does.

What do you mean it doesn't work? ">file" will work on all POSIX shells, it even works on Solaris /bin/sh!

Also ":>" is not an operator, it's ":" (a built-in command that does nothing and returns true) and a redirection.

Like the grand-parent, I have definitely used a Unix variant (CX/SX?) which required a command to do redirection.

It was a joke to call it an operator.

what do you mean? "cat > file" allows you to create simple text file not just empty files. As long as you don't need advanced editing, it is the quickest way to do it (well I think).

You are correct; my comment solves a different problem than the one in the article!

You can also use 'echo "hello" > file'

technically the equivalent is

    echo -n > file

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