How to empy the large size file?

[mrk_1]

Hi All,
I need to remove some of the log file for informix db. Instead of removing I thought to empty the file.

Can any one tell me whata is the command to empty the file.

Thanks in advance.

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi:

To truncate a file (reduce it to 0-characters), simply do:

# cat /dev/null > file

(or more succinctly):

# > file

Regards!

...JRF...

[Md. Farhan A Azam]

Hi you can purge the file

#> {filename},

prior excuting the command, ensure that it will hamper your system or not.

[Md. Farhan A Azam]

Don't forgot to assign points to whom, who has given you some light on your question.

[mrk_1]

Thanks for the help.

[Taifur]

Do you have dd on your system ?
dd if=/dev/zero of=output.file bs=1024 count=1024

if it helps you, then pls assign point

rgds
Taifur

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

> Taifur: dd if=/dev/zero of=output.file bs=1024 count=1024

This is the hard-way and needless consumes time.

Doing '> file' in a shell immediately truncates the end-of-file pointer to the beginning, nulling or emptying the file.

Regards!

...JRF...

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again):

> Taifur: dd if=/dev/zero of=output.file bs=1024 count=1024

This is the hard-way and needless consumes time. AND I meant to add that unless you limit the record 'count' you will create an "infinitely" large file that will fill your filesystem. WIth a record count, all you do is overwrite the beginning characters anyway --- not very useful.

[ NO POINTS FOR THIS PLEASE ]

...JRF...

[mrk_1]

Thanks a lot for all. I used following command > file to empty the file.

[rick jones]

It might be good to see if there is a way to trim the log file from within Informix - Informix may indeed not care if you zap the log file whith shell redirection, but it might be best to double check that...