How to Create a File in Linux Terminal With Examples

In this article we are going to shows how to create a file in Linux terminal. If you want to create a file in Linux via command-line then this post is ideal for you.

In the Linux, you can create a new file using the command line or via the desktop file manager. If you are a Linux user then creating a new file is a basic requirement for Linux users.

Linux is an operating system, like Windows OS, iOS, and Mac OS. It is one of the most popular operating system on the planet, Android is also powered by Linux OS(operating system).

Linux OS(operating system) is also distributed under an open source license. Open source following these points :

• Freely to run the program, for any purpose.
• Free to study how the program works.
• It is free to re-distribute copies so you can help your friends.
• Free to distribute copies of your modified versions to others.

How to create a new File in Linux

Before creating new files, make sure you have write permissions on the parent directory. Without write permissions, you will get a permission denied error. To display the existing files or contents of a directory use the ls command.

Create a File Using touch Command

The touch command used to create a new empty files and update the timestamps of existing files and directories.

To create a new file, run the touch command with name of the file that you want to create:

touch filename.txt

If the given file does not exist then touch command will create a new file. And if the given file is already exists then it will change the file last access and modification times with the current time, means it will change the timestamps of file.

You can also create multiple files at once using touch command , simply pass the file names separated by space as show below:

touch filename1.txt filename2.txt filename3.txt

Create a File Using cat Command

The cat command is very frequently used commands in Linux operating system. The name of the cat command discover from its functionality to concatenate files. It can reads data from the file and display the file content as output. You can also create, view, concatenate files using  cat command.

To create a new file, run the cat command with the redirection operator > and the name of the file that you want to create as show below:

cat > filename.txt

Next, type the text in the file and press the CRTL+D to save the files.

Create a File using the Redirection Operator

To create an empty file using the Redirection Operator, run the command below:

> filename.txt

Creating a File with echo Command 

The echo command used to display the passed arguments to the standard output.

To create a new empty file using echo command, run the command below:

echo > filename.txt

To create a new file with the text you want to print in the file, run the echo command with the redirection operator > as show below:

echo "Type some line here" > filename.txt

Create a Large File Using dd command

If you want to create a file named filename.test with a size of 1GB, run the the dd command as show below:

dd if=/dev/zero of=filename.test bs=1 count=0 seek=1G

Create a Large File Using fallocate command

Run the below fallocate command to create a file named filename.test with a size of 1GB:

fallocate -l 1G filename.test

That’s all

If you face any error and issue in above steps , please use comment box below to report.