Create files by using the command line in Linux
This article shows you how to create files by using the command line in Linux®.
Create a file
There are three main ways that you can create a file at the command line:
- The
touch
command - The
echo
command - A text editor such as
vim
ornano
The following steps show you how to create a new file by using each of these methods:
Open the command line and navigate to the directory in which you want to create a file.
Touch
The touch
command creates a new blank file that you can then open by using a text editor to add or edit text.
Type $ touch
followed by the name of the file you want to create.
~]$ touch testfile
To verify that you created the file successfully, type $ ls <name of your file>
.
~]$ ls testfile
testfile
You should see the new file in the list of files in the directory.
Echo
The echo
command enables you to add text to the file at the same time that you create it.
Use the following format to create a file by using echo
:
echo "your text" > <name of your file>
For example, the following command creates a file called testfile that contains the text "some text":
~]$ echo "some text" > testfile
To verify that you created the file successfully, type ls <name of your file>
:
~]$ ls testfile
testfile
You should see the new file in the list of files in the directory.
To read the information that you included in the file, type cat <name of your file>
.
~]$ cat testfile
some text
Text editor
If you have a large amount of text to add to a new file you can use a text editor, such
as vim
or nano
, to create a file and edit it at the same time.
-
Create and open the file by entering
vim <name of your file>
and then pressi
to enter Insert Mode. -
Enter the text that you want to add to the file.
Creating your file by using
vim
should look similar to the following example:~]$ vim testfile ~ ~ write your text here ~ ~ -- INSERT --
-
When you are finished editing, press "esc", ":wq" and then "enter" to save and quit.
To see the new information that you added, type cat <name of your file>
.
Updated 10 months ago