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Of course, the easiest way to create a file is to
use a word processor like vi or emacs. However, there are a few utilities
which you can use to create files from the command line as well.
The "touch" Utility
The touch utility simply creates an empty file of a
given name using the syntax:
touch filename
![[Spacer]](Images/dot_clear.gif) |
As you can see from the example above, if
the file already exists, it will modify the access time
without changing the contents of the file.
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The touch utility offers the following options
touch [options] MMDDhhmmYY filelist
| Option |
Explanation |
| -a |
Specifies the access time |
| -c |
Instructs touch to not create a file not specified in the list |
| -m |
Specifies the modify time |
| MMDDhhmmYY |
The time and date for setting files |
| filelist |
Space delimited list of files to apply time to. |
Using Redirection
A more useful tool for creating files from the command line
is redirection. Typically, you will use redirection to save the output
of a command in the body of a file. for example, check out how we use
redirection in the following example to crate a file with the directory
listing.
![[Example of output redirection]](Images/out.gif)
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![[touch Example]](Images/touch.gif)