empty a file

GS has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: empty a file by Nkuvu (Priest) on Jun 27, 2004 at 16:08 UTC
Short answer: `open FILEHANDLE, ">filename.txt" or die "Hork! $!\n";` Slightly longer answer: Read `perldoc perlopentut` and then read `perldoc -f open`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: empty a file by Joost (Canon) on Jun 27, 2004 at 16:09 UTC
Just overwrite the file: `open HANDLE,">","/path/to/file" or die "Cannot overwrite file: $!"; print HANDLE "Whatever"; close HANDLE;` [download] Will clear the file when the `open` statement executes, so you get an "empty" file to write to. See perldoc perlopentut. edit: typo in print statement fixed. "What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: empty a file by GS (Acolyte) on Jun 27, 2004 at 16:16 UTC
Forgot to mention that I am opeing this file in append mode. So I can not open it in write mode.	[reply]
Re^3: empty a file by valdez (Monsignor) on Jun 27, 2004 at 16:21 UTC
`perldoc -f truncate` Ciao, Valerio	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: empty a file by Anonymous Monk on Jun 27, 2004 at 23:03 UTC
Re^3: empty a file by Joost (Canon) on Jun 27, 2004 at 16:19 UTC
So why don't you change the open statement then? If you're overwriting the file, it's not very useful to open in append mode. "What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"	[reply]
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Re: empty a file by l3nz (Friar) on Jun 27, 2004 at 20:03 UTC
Either you open the file in append mode or you truncate the file. The two thing don't logically go together. Why don't you simply open the file in non-append mode? you'd get the same result as truncate plus append.	[reply]
Re: empty a file by Scarborough (Hermit) on Jun 28, 2004 at 12:02 UTC
If you are openning the file using the data and then writting new data to the file the simple way appears to me as follows `open IN, $file; #do what you need to do close IN; open OUT ">$file"; #print out the data close OUT;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]