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:

1. The touch command
2. The echo command
3. A text editor such as vim or nano

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.

1. Create and open the file by entering vim <name of your file> and then press i to enter Insert Mode.

2. 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 --          
   

3. 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>.