in linux you can use the evil bird emoticon (:>) to destroy files, eg `:> important_document.txt`

[lucypinder@mastodon.social]

@rebane2001 It's a cool fact

[ralph@hear-me.social]

@ChaosKitsune @rebane2001

':' returns 0 (meaning true). I just checked and '>' clears the file with no input. So, yes, the ':' is just decorative.

[silo_bear@mastodon.social]

@rebane2001 :3

[alesandroortiz@infosec.exchange]

@rebane2001 New "Press Alt+F4 to win" just dropped.

[beckydog@hydaelyn.coerthansnowstorm.online]

@rebane2001 @astraluma

Thanks! I’ve learned AND cemented as evil bird

[tanavit@toot.aquilenet.fr]

@rebane2001

Very interesting. Never seen it in a long life of use of Unix.

Is there a "cheat sheet" of other unknown - at least by me - such "wild" characters for file redirection ?

[rebane2001@infosec.exchange]

@tanavit > is pretty well known and : is a shell built-in similar to true, it's just the combination of the two that's uncommon

[tanavit@toot.aquilenet.fr]

@rebane2001

Thanks.

[mo@mastodon.ml]

@ChaosKitsune it's a bash builtin
$ help :
:: :
Null command.

No effect; the command does nothing.

Exit Status:
Always succeeds.

@rebane2001

[project1enigma@chaos.social]

@draeath @cenobyte @rebane2001

With echo "" you don't make an empty file though. It's a file with one octet (newline) then.

[draeath@infosec.exchange]

@project1enigma @cenobyte @rebane2001 true unless you pass the argument not to add that... But at that point things are getting silly and there's definitely better ways. But in most of the things I work with, a truly empty file and a file with only a newline in it are close enough to equivalent.

[overeducatedredneck@bitbang.social]

@ChaosKitsune @rebane2001 : is the null command in the POSIX shell standard. It's a built-in that outputs nothing and exits immediately with a status of zero (effectively the same as /bin/true).

So the shell parses ':> afile' as "null command with output redirected to afile"

[narfnra@mastodon.social]

@rebane2001 the everpresent word snatcher is real...

[det@critter.cafe]

@rebane2001 i would draw this if i had the energy to do so and also the art skills to draw that well enough to not have my perfectionist brain tear into me