How to create a file in Linux from terminal window?

Question

What's the easiest way to create a file in Linux terminal?

`$>newfile` also can create file. – EsmaeelE Dec 26 '18 at 20:34 — EsmaeelE, Dec 26 '18 at 20:34

score 670 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 30 '13 at 11:49

670

Depending on what you want the file to contain:

touch /path/to/file for an empty file

somecommand > /path/to/file for a file containing the output of some command.

  eg: grep --help > randomtext.txt
      echo "This is some text" > randomtext.txt

nano /path/to/file or vi /path/to/file (or any other editor emacs,gedit etc)
It either opens the existing one for editing or creates & opens the empty file to enter, if it doesn't exist

edited Jul 30 '13 at 11:49

Loves Probability

929
1
9
15

answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:44

Eugen Rieck

64,175
10
70
92

61

also, `printf "some long message\nwith newlines\n" > file` . Good luck to all. – shellter Feb 21 '12 at 16:50
1

UNIX is not a command line environment, but a family of (very different) OSes. That said: Yes, this should work on most Unices – Eugen Rieck Feb 21 '12 at 16:58
5

`touch` will work in UNIX, because it's a standard tool. The `somecommand` example will work because it uses standard syntax. The `nano` sample may not work because an editor named `nano` may not be installed (nano is not standardized). The standard editor is `ed` and could be used in place of `nano`, or you could use `$EDITOR` to use your user- or system-configured default text editor, if there is one. – sorpigal Feb 21 '12 at 17:16
14

Additionally, you could simply say `>/path/to/file` to create an empty file, even if you don't have `touch`. – sorpigal Feb 21 '12 at 17:17
2

@EugenRieck What if it says permission denied – 123 Sep 30 '13 at 10:57
1

"permission denied" means just that - you do not have the permission to create the specified file. This is typically a good thing. – Eugen Rieck Sep 30 '13 at 18:39
Also keep in mind, the /dir/ needs to exist for touch/vi(m)/nano to work...at least in certain distros such as CentOS. – dhaupin Aug 26 '15 at 17:22
It is also worth noting that the tilde (~) shorthand for the home directory will not be interpreted by a bash script. This tripped me up for a few minutes. – Shadoninja Aug 16 '16 at 17:55
1

If you see a 'permission denied' error try: sudo bash -c 'echo "Text" > file' – ammills01 Nov 04 '16 at 18:09
expanding on @ammills01's comment: If you see a 'permission denied' error try any of the commands listed in the question and the above comments with a leading `sudo `, e.g. `sudo touch /path/to/file`. You will then have to type the password to then be given permission (root access) to create this new file – hello_there_andy Jan 12 '17 at 00:28
@EugenRieck: nano seems doesn't work. I tried on Fedora 27 terminal. Got error bash: nano: command not found... – vinsinraw Feb 20 '18 at 14:36
@vinsinraw That just means, that `nano` is not installed on this system. Most likely `vi` is, so `vi /path/to/file` should work (or just do `yum install nano`) – Eugen Rieck Feb 20 '18 at 15:29
Which command does not *`touch`* any file? `mkdir` refuses to create a new directory, so I imagined a command such as `mkfile`. – neverMind9 Apr 28 '18 at 16:35
@neverMind9 `touch` can be used as `mkfile` - so there must be something else going on. What's the error message to `mkdir` ? – Eugen Rieck Apr 29 '18 at 12:28

score 155 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:45

155

Use touch

touch filename

answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:45

Mariusz Jamro

30,615
24
120
162

raffian · Answer 3 · 2014-01-27T14:32:57.907

129

Create the file using cat

$ cat > myfile.txt

Now, just type whatever you want in the file:

Hello World!

CTRL-D to save and exit

edited Jan 27 '14 at 14:32

answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:43

raffian

31,267
26
103
174

1

I prefer using cat since it offers an easy and convenient way to edit the file immediately. – Delali Sep 26 '17 at 19:52
You can also type nothing. – Bing Zhao Feb 15 '19 at 08:04
1

When I tried `cat /etc/systemd/system/sample.service`, it said "no such file or directory" rather than creating a new sample.service file. – TylerH Aug 18 '19 at 20:57
@TylerH `cat /etc/systemd/system/sample.service` prints the file to the console `cat > /etc/systemd/system/sample.service` redirects standard input to the file (which is why you need to close standard input by pressing control-d. – Jerry Jeremiah Jan 29 '20 at 22:52

score 53 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

There are several possible solutions:

Create an empty file

touch file

>file

echo -n > file

printf '' > file

The echo version will work only if your version of echo supports the -n switch to suppress newlines. This is a non-standard addition. The other examples will all work in a POSIX shell.

Create a file containing a newline and nothing else

echo '' > file

printf '\n' > file

This is a valid "text file" because it ends in a newline.

Write text into a file

"$EDITOR" file

echo 'text' > file

cat > file <<END \
text
END

printf 'text\n' > file

These are equivalent. The $EDITOR command assumes that you have an interactive text editor defined in the EDITOR environment variable and that you interactively enter equivalent text. The cat version presumes a literal newline after the \ and after each other line. Other than that these will all work in a POSIX shell.

Of course there are many other methods of writing and creating files, too.

score 27 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:44

27

Also, create an empty file:

touch myfile.txt

answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:44

andreapier

2,958
2
38
50

score 23 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

23

You can use touch command, as the others said:

touch filename

To write on file on command line, you can use echo or printf:

echo "Foo" > filename
printf "Foo" > filename

Maybe you can have problems with permissions. If you are getting the following error: bash: filename: Permission denied, you need to use sudo bash -c 'echo "Foo" > filename', as described here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/103643/cannot-echo-hello-x-txt-even-with-sudo

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

Community

1
1

answered Oct 03 '15 at 19:15

user3753202

517
7
14

Or `sudo !!` If you get that error. Using `!!` Will let you rerun the command that failed prepending ‘ `sudo` to the command. Just a tip I find to be very useful. Happy coding =) – 0xe1λ7r Mar 29 '22 at 23:27

score 19 · Answer 7 · edited Dec 31 '15 at 21:10

How to create a text file on Linux:

Using touch to create a text file: $ touch NewFile.txt
Using cat to create a new file: $ cat NewFile.txt
The file is created, but it's empty and still waiting for the input from the user. You can type any text into the terminal, and once done CTRL-D will close it, or CTRL-C will escape you out.
Simply using > to create a text file: $ > NewFile.txt
Lastly, we can use any text editor name and then create the file, such as:
nano MyNewFile vi MyNewFile NameOfTheEditor NewFileName

score 17 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:44

17

haha! it's easy! try this:

$ touch filename

answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:44

Roman Newaza

11,405
11
58
89

1

This worked with sudo, so I was able to create new file in system folder. – Patricia Apr 23 '15 at 20:43

score 16 · Answer 9 · edited May 11 '17 at 06:28

16

This will create an empty file with the current timestamp

touch filename

edited May 11 '17 at 06:28

Mariusz Jamro

30,615
24
120
162

answered Sep 17 '14 at 09:31

Christy George

309
1
5
14

score 16 · Answer 10 · edited Aug 29 '16 at 08:58

16

1st method

echo -n > filename.txt

2nd method

> filename.txt

3rd method

touch filename.txt

To view the file contents

vi filename.txt

edited Aug 29 '16 at 08:58

Tomik

23,857
8
121
100

answered Aug 29 '16 at 06:49

shashwat gupta

161
1
2

2 method is type-> "> filename.txt" – shashwat gupta Aug 29 '16 at 06:50
The question is not on-topic for Stack Overflow as defined in the [help]. Please don't answer such questions; instead, you should flag them for attention and they will be closed or migrated appropriately. – Toby Speight Aug 29 '16 at 08:45

score 16 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 03 '17 at 10:50

16

touch filename

for permission denied error use sudo command as:

sudo touch filename

answered Nov 03 '17 at 10:50

Pradeep Kumar

4,065
2
33
40

score 11 · Answer 12 · answered Mar 28 '17 at 10:35

11

Simple as that :

> filename

answered Mar 28 '17 at 10:35

IvanM

2,913
2
30
30

score 8 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:46

8

You can use the touch command to create a new empty file.

http://linux.about.com/library/cmd/blcmdl_touch.htm

answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:46

Andy Arismendi

50,577
16
107
124

score 6 · Answer 14 · answered Nov 03 '14 at 09:58

6

I like the nano command-line editor (text):

nano filename

answered Nov 03 '14 at 09:58

Sam Perry

2,554
3
28
29

score 4 · Answer 15 · answered Feb 19 '14 at 09:55

In case you guys are trying to create a new file, but it says: 'File does not exist', it's simply because you are also accessing a directory, which does not exist yet. You have to create all non existent directories first, using the mkdir /path/to/dir command.

score 2 · Answer 16 · answered Apr 04 '19 at 16:00

2

To create a blank file with ownership and permissions using install.

sudo install -v -oUSER -gGROUP -m640 /dev/null newFile.txt

answered Apr 04 '19 at 16:00

LinuxGuru

341
2
11

The `sudo` is useful in many scenarios, but not directly part of the answer to the OP's question. – tripleee Apr 04 '19 at 16:03
It is needed if you are not the user name that you need the file owned by or not a member of the group. – LinuxGuru Apr 04 '19 at 16:10
Yes, there are scenarios like that which are however strictly speaking not what the OP asked. – tripleee Apr 04 '19 at 16:11
This is actually the answer I came here to find! – Aaron McMillin Feb 10 '23 at 15:27

score 2 · Answer 17 · answered Apr 15 '19 at 21:16

2

One of the easiest way and quick

$ vim filename

answered Apr 15 '19 at 21:16

How to create a file in Linux from terminal window?

17 Answers17

Create an empty file

Create a file containing a newline and nothing else

Write text into a file

Linked

Related