Write to file, but overwrite it if it exists

Question

echo \"text\" >> \'Users/Name/Desktop/TheAccount.txt\'

How do I make it so it creates the file if it doesn\'t exist, but overwrites it if it

Answer 1

The >> redirection operator will append lines to the end of the specified file, where-as the single greater than > will empty and overwrite the file.

echo "text" > 'Users/Name/Desktop/TheAccount.txt'

Answer 2

In Bash, if you have set noclobber a la set -o noclobber, then you use the syntax >|

For example:

echo "some text" >| existing_file

This also works if the file doesn't exist yet

---

• Check if noclobber is set with: set -o | grep noclobber

• For a more detailed explanation on this special type of operator, see this post

• For a more exhaustive list of redirection operators, refer to this post