This is a very typical case, the need to create a temp file on the command line quickly. Opening editor, writing content, save file and quit editor is not the fastest possible way. A faster way is to use the cat command with the name of the file and write contents of the file and give the end-of-file character (Ctrl-D).

Create Temporary File Without Editor on Command Line

# Create file
$ cat > /tmp/temp_file_name.txt
some content
more content
and even more content
<Ctrl-D>
 
# View file content
$ cat /tmp/temp_file_name.txt
some content
more content
and even more content

Append to Temporary File Without Editor on Command Line

# Append to file
$ cat >> /tmp/temp_file_name.txt
append content
append more content
append even more content
<Ctrl-D>
 
# View file content
$ cat /tmp/temp_file_name.txt
some content
more content
and even more content
append content
append more content
append even more content

Very easy, quick and usefull!

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This entry was posted on February 8, 2010 at February 8, 2010 and is filed under Linux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.