How to create an empty file at the command line in Windows?
How to create an empty file at the command line in Windows?
Question
How to create an empty file at the DOS/Windows command-line?
I tried:
copy nul > file.txt
but it always displays that a file was copied.
Is there any other method in the standard cmd?
It should be a method that does not require the touch command from Cygwin or any other nonstandard commands. The command needs to run from a script so keystrokes cannot be used.
Accepted Answer
Without redirection, Luc Vu or Erik Konstantopoulos point out to:
copy NUL EMptyFile.txt
copy /b NUL EmptyFile.txt
"How to create empty text file from a batch file?" (2008) also points to:
type NUL > EmptyFile.txt
# also
echo. 2>EmptyFile.txt
copy nul file.txt > nul # also in qid's answer below
REM. > empty.file
fsutil file createnew file.cmd 0 # to create a file on a mapped drive
Nomad mentions an original one:
C:\Users\VonC\prog\tests>aaaa > empty_file
'aaaa' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
C:\Users\VonC\prog\tests>dir
Folder C:\Users\VonC\prog\tests
27/11/2013 10:40 <REP> .
27/11/2013 10:40 <REP> ..
27/11/2013 10:40 0 empty_file
In the same spirit, Samuel suggests in the comments:
the shortest one I use is basically the one by Nomad:
.>out.txt
It does give an error:
'.' is not recognized as an internal or external command
But this error is on stderr. And > only redirects stdout, where nothing have been produced.
Hence the creation of an empty file. The error message can be disregarded here.
(Original answer, November 2009)
echo.>filename
(echo "" would actually put "" in the file! And echo without the '.' would put "Command ECHO activated" in the file...)
Note: the resulting file is not empty but includes a return line sequence: 2 bytes.
This discussion points to a true batch solution for a real empty file:
<nul (set/p z=) >filename
dir filename
11/09/2009 19:45 0 filename
1 file(s) 0 bytes
The "
<nul" pipes anulresponse to theset/pcommand, which will cause the variable used to remain unchanged. As usual withset/p, the string to the right of the equal sign is displayed as a prompt with no CRLF.
Since here the "string to the right of the equal sign" is empty... the result is an empty file.
The difference with cd. > filename (which is mentioned in Patrick Cuff's answer and does also produce a 0-byte-length file) is that this "bit of redirection" (the <nul... trick) can be used to echo lines without any CR:
<nul (set/p z=hello) >out.txt
<nul (set/p z= world!) >>out.txt
dir out.txt
The
dircommand should indicate the file size as 11 bytes: "helloworld!".
Popular Answer
Try this:
type NUL > 1.txt
this will definitely create an empty file.
Read more... Read less...
If you really want a totally empty file, without any output to stdout, you can cheat a little:
copy nul file.txt > nul
Just redirect stdout to nul, and the output from copy disappears.
Open file :
type file.txt
New file :
Way 1 : type nul > file.txt
Way 2 : echo This is a sample text file > sample.txt
Way 3 : notepad myfile.txt <press enter>
Edit content:
notepad file.txt
Copy
copy file1.txt file1Copy.txt
Rename
rename file1.txt file1_rename.txt
Delete file :
del file.txt
Reading comments on my post, I have to admit I didn't read the question right.
On the Windows command-line, one way would be to use fsutil:
fsutil file createnew <filename> <size>
An example:
fsutil file createnew myEmptyFile.txt 0
Below is for *nix command-line.
touch filename
This command changes your modified date of a file or creates it if file is not found.