Clear a file without changing its timestamp

Posted by Alex Farber on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Alex Farber
Published on 2010-05-27T10:30:20Z Indexed on 2010/05/27 10:41 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 147

Filed under:

linux

|

file

|

timestamp

Is it possible to clear a file preserving its timestamp, using standard Linux commands? For example:

echo "" > file-name

converts the text file to empty, this is OK for me. But I need to keep the timestamp unchanged.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about linux

apt-get install and update fail

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I've got a problem with apt-get update and apt-get install ... commands . every time update or installing fails and errors are : Get:1 http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg [198B] Ign http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable/main Translation-en_US Get:2 http://dl… >>> More
kernel module compiling error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
sh@ubuntu:/home/ccpp/helloworld$ make gcc-4.6 -O2 -DMODULE -D_KERNEL_ -W -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -isystem /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include -c -o hello-1.o hello-1.c hello-1.c:4:0: warning: "MODULE" redefined [enabled by default] <command-line>:0:0: note: this is… >>> More
Build-Essentials installation failing

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having trouble accessing the several critical header files that show to be a part of the build process. The "Ubuntu Software Center" shows "Build Essentials" as installed: Next I did the following two commands, which did not improve the problem: ~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential [sudo]… >>> More
Updating Debian kernel

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm trying to update my Debian machine to 2.6.32-46 (which is the new stable). However, after doing apt-get update my apt-cache search linux-image shows me: linux-headers-2.6.32-5-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-486 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem linux-headers-2… >>> More
Serial connection over a single USB cable (Windows to linux, or linux to linux)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm helping out with a project for an embedded device that only has USB and no serial. This device is running Linux. These days, when we need to connect to a serial port on a device we typically use a USB to serial adapter (on something like a phone system or a load balancing device, etc). I would… >>> More

Related posts about file

NTFS Corruption: Files created in Linux corrupted when Windows Boots

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I'm getting some file loss and corruption on my Win7/Ubuntu 12.04 dual boot setup. I have a large shared NTFS partition. I have my Windows Docs/Music/etc. directories on that file and have the comparable directors in Linux setup as a sym. link. I'm using ntfs-3g on the linux side of things to… >>> More
Prevent malicious vulnerability scan increasing load on a server

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi all, this week we have been suffering some malicious vulnerability scans to our servers, increasing the load on them, making them nearly unusable. The attack is easy to defend, just blocking the offending ip, but only after discovering it. Is there any form of prevent it? Is it normal that… >>> More
yum update failed

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have problem doint yum update on my OpenVZ VPS i get this error message : (56/69): glibc-devel-2.5-81.el5_8.7.x86_64.rpm | 2.4 MB 00:00 (57/69): libstdc++-devel-4.1.2-52.el5_8.1.x86_64.rpm | 2.8 MB 00:00 (58/69): binutils-2.17.50.0.6-20.el5_8.3.x86_64.rpm | 2.9 MB … >>> More
Microsoft Management Console stops working when I add snap-in to it

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have Windows 7 Ultimate OS. I'm opening mmc.exe as administrator and trying add Certificates or any other snap-in, then while loading that snap-in MMC breaks and displays following message and after that it closes automatically once I click on close button on that message. What could be the problem… >>> More
Opening a file opens the folder the file is in, not the file itself

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Whenever I try to open a file (such as an .odt, or .doc) from say, the Dash or the Firefox Downloads, Ubuntu 11.10 opens Nautilus to the the folder where the file is, rather than just going to the application and loading the file straight away. In previous releases, when I clicked on a downloaded… >>> More