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Linux: Create Text File on Linux Shell / Command Line

Updated by JR on Dec 29, 2010 in Command Line Guides, Linux | 2 comments

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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).

This is guide, howto create (or append to) text file without text editor on Linux shell / command line.

Create Text File Without Text 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

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2 Comments

john / December 24, 2011

How could you copy the text in the shell to a file. Say I run a series of commands. Such as wget, tar. ./configure, make, make install. I want to save all the messages in a file.

Reply
- JR / December 25, 2011
  
  Hi john,
  
  You can do following to get your command output to file:
  
  ## Create new file ## command > /path/to/file.txt ## Append to file ## command >> /path/to/file.txt
  
  Real example:
  
  ## Create new file ## ls -la /var/log > /tmp/var-log.txt ## Append to file ## ls -la /var/log >> /tmp/var-log.txt
  
  Reply