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  gt  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

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Today I ve discovered a new one     This will change the command line window title  but will also create a empty file   title  gt  file txt

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Use copy  gt  your file name extension in command prompt like   P  excecise gt  copy  gt  Sample txt

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Try this   type NUL  gt  1 txt   this will definitely create an empty file

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echo  set  p  gt file   echo  suppress the  Command ECHO activated    set  p  prevent newline  and file is now 0 byte

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For creating any type of file you can use the following code type nul  gt   file name   file type  Eg  If you want to create a text file then  type nul  gt  demo txt  If you want to create a javascript file then  type nul  gt  demo js

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create a bat file with content echo     gt   1   name the file as touch bat  add the folder to PATH variable  you can use touch to create files   Ex  touch temp txt creates temp txt file    check this article for more information

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On Windows I tried doing this  echo off  gt  fff1 txt   and it created a file named fff1 txt with file size of 0kb  I didn t find any commands other than this that could create a empty file      Note  You have to be in the directory you wish to create the file

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Yet another way   copy nul 2 gt empty file txt

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cd  gt  filename cfg    worked when creating a file in C  Program Files where you don t have the access to create files directly

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Run CMD in admistrator mode and type this   NUL  gt  file name extention   or you type this  echo   gt  file name extention

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gt  gt file txt    gt  gt  append STDOUT into a file   is just a wrong command to pass the empty STDOUT to   gt  gt   However  you ll see STDERR s output in the CMD       is not recognized as an internal or external command  operable program or batch file   You can suppress this error message  if you want  by redirecting STDERR to NUL    gt  gt file txt 2 gt nul

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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  lt filename gt   lt size gt    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

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so you can create an empty file with       gt  newfile txt   navigate to the directory and type the above command in PowerShell window    Note this will not work on windows command prompt

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Without redirection  Luc Vu or Erik Konstantopoulos point out to  copy NUL EMptyFile txt copy  b NUL EmptyFile txt    quot How to create empty text file from a batch file  quot   2008  also points to  type NUL  gt  EmptyFile txt   also echo  2 gt EmptyFile txt copy nul file txt  gt  nul   also in qid s answer below REM   gt  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 gt aaaa  gt  empty file  aaaa  is not recognized as an internal or external command  operable program or batch file   C  Users VonC prog tests gt dir   Folder C  Users VonC prog tests  27 11 2013  10 40     lt REP gt             27 11 2013  10 40     lt REP gt              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     gt out txt  It does give an error      is not recognized as an internal or external command  But this error is on stderr  And  gt  only redirects stdout  where nothing have been produced  Hence the creation of an empty file  The error message can be disregarded here  Or  as in Rain s answer  redirected to NUL    gt out txt 2 gt NUL    Original answer  November 2009  echo  gt filename   echo  quot  quot  would actually put  quot  quot  in the file  And echo without the     would put  quot Command ECHO activated quot  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    lt nul  set p z    gt filename   dir filename  11 09 2009  19 45                 0 filename  1 file s                          0 bytes   The  quot  lt nul quot  pipes a nul response to the set p command  which will cause the variable used to remain unchanged  As usual with set p  the string to the right of the equal sign is displayed as a prompt with no CRLF   Since here the  quot string to the right of the equal sign quot  is empty    the result is an empty file   The difference with cd   gt  filename  which is mentioned in Patrick Cuff s answer and does also produce a 0-byte-length file  is that this  quot bit of redirection quot   the  lt nul    trick  can be used to echo lines without any CR   lt nul  set p z hello   gt out txt  lt nul  set p z  world    gt  gt out txt dir out txt   The dir command should indicate the file size as 11 bytes   quot helloworld  quot

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You could also use   echo  2 gt foo   The debug output for echo  will almost definitely be empty

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This worked for me   echo  gt  file extension   Here s another way I found today  got ideas from other answers but it worked  sometext  gt  filename extension   Eg   xyz  gt  emptyfile txt    this would create an empty zero byte text file abc  gt  filename mp4     this would create an zero byte MP4 video media file   This would show an error message in the command prompt that    xyz is not as an internal or external command  operable program or batch file   But the weird thing I found was the file is being created in the directory even if the command is not a standard windows command

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call gt file txt   this is the cleanest way I know

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Open file      type file txt   New file     Way 1   type nul  gt  file txt Way 2   echo This is a sample text file  gt  sample txt Way 3   notepad myfile txt  lt press enter gt    Edit  content    notepad file txt   Copy  copy file1 txt file1Copy txt   Rename   rename file1 txt file1 rename txt   Delete file     del file txt

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Try this        echo  null  gt  gt  filename    See  superUser

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echo     gt  filename   I believe this works on Windows DOS  but my last hands-on experience with either is quite a while ago  I do know for a fact that it works on basically any POSIX compliant OS

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As a VIM user on windows  I failed to find the answer in this question thread    As a solution from this thread  please install the gvim firstly  During the installation  please remember to check the option  Create  bat files for command line use  as shown below       Some bat files like vim bat and gvim bat will be installed under C  Windows   Add C  Windows to system Path if it s not done     Relaunch the cmd exe and type gvim empty file txt  you will launch the gvim to edit the empty file from scratch  If you don t want to leave your  Command Prompt  console  type vim empty file txt instead   Hope this answer can help those who want to launch VIM from windows Command Prompt when creating an empty file

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copy con SomeFile txt Enter  Ctrl-Z Enter

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Here is yet another way   rem   gt  file ext   The slash   is mandatory  without it the redirection part was commented out by rem

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Try this  abc  gt  myFile txt First  it will create a file with name myFile txt in present working directory  in command prompt   Then it will run the command abc which is not a valid command  In this way  you have gotten a new empty file with the name myFile txt

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You can use the old command   copy con file name ext   don t type anything  just press F6 to save it  however it will print  File copied   but when you open the file  it will be empty

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Just I have tried in windows  copy con file txt   then Press Enter Key then Press Ctrl Z Enter  And its worked for me     For Ubuntu usually I am creating a file using VI command  vi file txt   It will open the file then press ESC key  then type  wp then press enter key  It will create a new file with empty data

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First create your file so that it exists   echo    gt  myfile txt   Then overwrite the created file with an empty version using the copy command   copy  y nul myfile txt

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You can write your own touch     touch cpp  include  lt fstream gt   include  lt iostream gt   int main int argc  char    argv       if argc   2          std  cerr  lt  lt   Must supply a filename as argument   lt  lt  endl      return 1        std  ofstream foo argv 1      foo close      return 0

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If you really want a totally empty file  without any output to stdout  you can cheat a little   copy nul file txt  gt  nul   Just redirect stdout to nul  and the output from copy disappears

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type nul gt filename will create a new empty file  Sorry I m late  UPDATE  Also copy nul filename works without redirecting  more obvious solution

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I read many threads but it is not the shortest way   Please use command    gt copy  b NUL  empty file txt

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Yet another method that creates a zero byte file   break  gt   file txt

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Here s another way   cd   gt  filename

[windows] How to create an empty file at the command line in Windows?

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