Linux / UNIX like operating system offers many command line tools and text editors for creating text files. You can use vi or joe text editor. It is a terminal-based text editor for Linux/Unix like systems, available under the GPL. It is designed to be easy to use. In short, you can use any one of the following tool:
| Tutorial details | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty level | Easy |
| Root privileges | No |
| Requirements | None |
| Est. reading time | 5m |
- cat command
- echo or printf command
- Nano text editor
- vi text editor
- joe text editor
- Any other console based text editor
Create a Text File using cat command
To create a text file called foo.txt, enter:
$ cat > foo.txt
Output:
This is a test.
Hello world!
press CTRL+D to save file
To display file contents, type:
$ cat foo.txt
Create a text file using echo or printf command
To create a file called foo.txt, enter:
echo 'This is a test' > foo.txt
OR
printf 'This is a test\n' > foo.txt
OR
printf 'This is a test\n Another line' > foo.txt
To display file contents, type:
$ cat foo.txt
Create a Text File using nano text editor
Nano is a text editor from GNU project for Linux or Unix-like system. To create a file named foo.txt, run:
$ nano foo.txt
Sample outputs:
GNU nano is a simple terminal-based text editor for Linux/Unix
Create a Text File using joe text editor
JOE is text editor. To create a file called foo.txt, type:
$ joe -help foo.txt
You will see help menu on screen. Next type something. To save the file and leave joe, by typing ^KX (press CTRL+K+X).
Create a Text File using vi / vim text editor
vi / vim is another text editor. To create a file called bar.txt, type:
$ vi bar.txt
Press ‘i’ to insert new text. To save the file and leave vi, type ESC+:+x (press ESC key, type : followed by x and [enter] key).
Further readings
- Learn more about joe here : Introduction to the Joe Text Editor
- Learn more about vi here : Download mastering the VI editor pdf version.
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| Category | List of Unix and Linux commands |
|---|---|
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| File Management | cat • cp • mkdir • tree |
| Firewall | Alpine Awall • CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Network Utilities | NetHogs • dig • host • ip • nmap |
| OpenVPN | CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Package Manager | apk • apt |
| Processes Management | bg • chroot • cron • disown • fg • jobs • killall • kill • pidof • pstree • pwdx • time |
| Searching | grep • whereis • which |
| User Information | groups • id • lastcomm • last • lid/libuser-lid • logname • members • users • whoami • who • w |
| WireGuard VPN | Alpine • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04 |
You can also use touch command to create empty files:
touch foobar.txt
basically i m beginner could please give me any links or book to understand linux architecture, well i m also confused in using linux commands since there r so many option is there any web which explains how to use linux commands
thanks in advance.
Pafcio,
thanks for pointing out touch command!
echo ‘ This is a multiline
text file created
from the bash shell
using echo command’ > multiline.txt
i want create a text file. pls could you help me…
$ cat foot.txt
Thanks a lot! It helps me.
Thank you very much! all of you
Excellent, cause I just used it at work, and it worked and helped me.
Thanks
Detailed information but would appreciate if someone can upload the solution for cat command as in executing or running the vi program. I am writing a finction in the vi and want to execute it outside the vi on the bash shell.
Thx- Nitish Anand
thanks guys. i do try cat, it works perfectly.
but in vi mode i’m not able to save & exit the file. i had to exit using ctrl+z & the file was not saved.
please help me. mail on nehra13@gmail.com
Have u tried using:-
!wq for save and exit VI
!w to just exit.
have two files, ‘file1’ and ‘file2’.
file1 has:
1234
4567
6789
file2 has:
abcd
efgh
ijkl
would like to combine into one like:
1234 | abcd
4567 | efgh
6789 | ijkl
Please give direction.
Thanks
Hi,
@chakjoy
here is an solution. Using arrays:
—
#!/bin/bash
declare -a ARRAY1
declare -a ARRAY2
let count=0
let count1=0
while read LINE
do
ARRAY1[$count]=$LINE
((count++))
done < file1.txt
while read LINE
do
ARRAY2[$count1]=$LINE
((count1++))
done < file2.txt
for((i=0; i<${#ARRAY1[@]};i++));do
echo "${ARRAY1[${i}]} | ${ARRAY2[${i}]}"
done
—
I hope this help.
Hi chakjoy,
Did u manage to resolve your problem? Try the folling link if thats what you meant:-
OR
cd /var/log && ls -al
this switches to the /var/log directory if the directory change was sucessfuly it will then list the contents of that directory.
You can also list the contents of a directory without leaving your current location..
ls -al /var/log
Would list the contents of /var/log no matter your current location in the directory tree.
You can also use | to send the output of one command to the input of another..
mount | column -t
Show mount points in a column format
ls -al | grep *.jpg
List the contents of a directory buit only show files ending in .jpg
ps aux | grep X11
List processes but only show processes containing X11 > and list.txt
Will list the contents of the /var/log directory and save it in the file list.txt
hope this helps
====================
You can chain copmmands together using &&
cd /var/log && ls -al
this swithces to the /var/log directory if the directory change was sucessfuly it will then list the contents o fhte directory.
just to add to that, you can likewise chain commands together with the || operator (OR operator, not to be confused with a pipe | )
Code:
$ cd /mnt || cd /varthis would attempt to change to the /mnt directory. If it could not it would then switch to the /var directory. If the cd /mnt command was successfull then it would stop. Similarly,
Code:
$ cd /blah || cd /homeit’s probably safe to say there is no /blah directory on your computer so typing this command would attempt to change to a non-existant directory, fail, and consequently change to /home
have fun!
There is so much to learn when you get inside of linux, for example, VI is not the easier text editor but it rocks xD
That’s good I am new Linuxer , now I am studying it .
Thanks.
Thx a lot guys.
I am also a newbie to Linux and it helps a lot!
how to chkdsk in linux cmd mode
how to check in all disk drive in linux command mode
how to install other software in linux command mode
please i am not able to understand to do program with echo command. please tell mr steps from starting….
how to save lines in a file? how to execute ?
how to save lines in a file at unix? how to execute?
Just $ > filename will do the same, manily creating a empty file named “filename”
Go ahead type “> test” and see for your self
What is the main difference between touch & vi commnd?
Could someone help me understand what this means?
Save the information that you have read from the keyboard into a file
good job !!!
how to search the empty file in linux …
For that which command use ???
please tell me …. help me …..
Perhaps a subliminal mistake, looks like you used ‘cat foot.txt’ instead of ‘cat foo.txt’ in your example.
hi guyz,
mu /dev/hdc had 2.7 G and its now 100%. Need to clear it.
Please help.
I am trying to maintain a list of “ROMS” be it NDS, or MAME, no matter.
Instead of accessing each page on a website, is it possible to use cat to look for say; title” … ” within .aspx on the website and copy it to local txt file ? I have been using ..
cat wordlist/* | tr -cs A-Za-z ’12’ | tr A-Z a-z | sort | uniq > wordlist/masterlist.txt to merge numerous txt files into one, have them sort, and no repeats. something like this to be able to input the website start & end page and where to save the roms list.. there doesn’t really seem to be any 1 site that has a complete & accurate list. I an not trying to circumvent anything to get to the roms, I merely wish to be able to goto a webpage, enter in the variables, run a script to gather the list from the site, then after I have done this to a few sites run the above quoted, to merge the different sites into 1 ( hopefully ) accurate list so I know the names & numbers of the roms for each list.
Nice job.. thanxxx… :D
hey guys, how can I concatenate an echo command & DATE to only one line ..
like:
echo “The date is: ” && date >> file.txt
but this command will display text “The date is: ” and insert the date into the file.txt
the output I want is
“The date is 07-12-12.”
to the file.txt
help pls..
echo `echo The date is: && date` >> file.txt
Very helpful steps for a fresher in C/C++
pls send me how to create log file(tape wirrten is normal file, normal file format only not tar file format)
i want create “example.com” file in this dir:
etc/apache2/
plz help me…
tnx
How do you edit the file you created ?
Use a text editor such as vi/emacs/joe and more.
Great, but I found a typo:
It should be foo.txt not foot.txt.
Thanks for the heads up!
I am doing with my BS Computer Science, I am provided with a project to make a
A_primitive linux shell using terminal of Ubuntu or GNU (GCC) compiler and in it i have to set up a shell environment to use the following commands
1 cd
2 ls
3 pwd
4 pop
5 push
B_ using any technique within this file system to make a single file password protected.
Noted: Can’t use ‘system’ or ‘exe’ command but can use libC and its assorted libraries also can use dirent.h,ctype.h.
please please please help me with this having said that i have to submit it on monday 9th March,2015
how we can create html file automatically in linux
Hi Vivek,
Thank you for the post. It keeps me coming back because it is easy and very direct.