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How to Create a Text File in Linux Terminal

How to Create a Text File in Linux Terminal
JC Brian Refugia
Technical writer
Linux
01.06.2025
Reading time: 8 min
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In Linux, you can access and edit text files using a text editor that is designed to work with plain text. These files are not specifically coded or formatted.

Linux allows one to create a file in numerous ways. The fastest is, probably, Linux Command Line or Terminal. For all users—especially server administrators—who must rapidly generate text files, scripts, or configuration files for their work, this is a very important ability.

Let's proceed to the guide on four standard techniques for creating a text file on the terminal.

Don't forget that Hostman offers a reliable managed Linux VPS for your projects.

Prerequisites for File Creation in Linux

Ensure these prerequisites are met before generating files in a Linux environment using the command-line interface:

  1. Access to a Functional Linux System: You must either have a Linux-based operating system installed on your computer or secure access to a Linux server via SSH (Secure Shell) protocol.

  2. Operational Terminal Interface: Confirm that your terminal application is accessible and fully operational. The terminal serves as your primary gateway to executing commands.

  3. Adequate User Permissions: Verify you can create files within the chosen directory. You may need to use sudo (for directories with access restrictions) to escalate privileges.

  4. Fundamental Commands Proficiency: You must get familiar with essential commands, such as touch for file creation, echo for printing text, cat for viewing file contents, and text editors like nano, vim, or vi for editing files directly.

  5. Text Editing Utilities: Ensure your system includes text editing tools: nano for command line simplicity, vim for advanced configurations, or graphical options like gedit for user-friendly navigation.

  6. Directory Management Expertise: Develop familiarity with directory navigation commands like cd for changing the working directory and ls for listing directory contents. This knowledge streamlines your workflow and avoids potential errors.

Using the touch Command

Generally, we use the touch command to create empty files and change timestamps. It will create an empty file if it doesn't exist already. 

To create a text file in the current directory with the touch command:

  1. Open your terminal emulator.

  2. Type the command:
touch filename.txt

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Change "filename" to your desired name. The timestamps for access and modification will be updated without changes in file content if the file exists already. Otherwise, an empty file is created with a given name. 

  1. Press Enter—if it is successful, there will be no output.

  2. Use the ls command to list the directory content and verify file creation.

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Using the echo Command Redirection

The echo command is widely used to display text on the terminal. But its capabilities go beyond that; it may also be used to write content to a file or create an empty file. For this, combine the echo command with double redirect symbols (you can also use a single >) and the desired filename.

A text file can be created by redirecting the output of the echo command to a file. See how it works:

  1. Open your terminal emulator.

  2. Type the command:

echo “Your text content here” > filename.txt

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Replace the text in double quotations (do not delete them) with yours to add it to the file. 

After you press Enter, your text will be added to the file filename.txt. It will overwrite an existing file, if there is one. Otherwise, it will just create a new one.

  1. Press Enter.

  2. To verify that the file has been created and contains the desired content, use cat command to display the content. 

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Using the cat Command Redirection

In Linux, the cat command is mostly used to concatenate and show file contents. It can, however, also be used to generate a text document by redirecting the standard output of cat to a file.

  1. Open your terminal emulator.

  2. Type the following command:

cat > filename.txt

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Replace filename.txt with the name for your text file. This command instructs cat to receive input rom the terminal and to redirect it into the filename.txt.

  1. Press Enter. The terminal will be waiting for input. 

  2. Enter the text you want in the file. Press Enter after each line.

  3. Press Ctrl + D when you are done. This signals the end of input to the cat and saves the content. 

  4. Run the cat command to check that the file has been created and contains the desired content.

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Using printf for Advanced File Creation

The printf utility is a powerful alternative to echo, offering enhanced formatting options for structuring text. It allows users to create files with precisely formatted content.

  1. Open the terminal.

  2. Use printf to define the text layout, incorporating formatting elements like newlines (\n) or tabs (\t). Redirect the output to a file using the > operator.

Example:

printf "First Line\nSecond Line\nIndented\tThird Line\n" >  formatted_file.txt

  1. Run the cat command to inspect the file's content and ensure the formatting matches expectations.

Append Without Overwriting: To add content to an existing file without overwriting its current data, replace > with the append operator >>:

printf "Additional content here.\n" >> formatted_file.txt

Using a Text Editor

You can also create new files in linux text editors. There is always at least one integrated command-line text editor in your Linux distribution. But you can choose and install a different one according to your preferences, for example, Vim, Nano, or Emacs. Each of them has its own features and advantages.

Vim

vim, which stands for "Vi IMproved," is a very flexible and adaptable text editor. It is well-known for its modal editing, which allows for distinct modes for various functions like text entry, navigation, and editing. It allows split windows, multiple buffers, syntax highlighting, and a large selection of plugins for extra features. To create a text file using vim, follow the steps below:

  1. Open vim, with the desired filename as an argument.

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  1. Press i to switch to Insert mode.

  2. Start typing and editing the filename.txt. 

  3. To save and exit, press Esc to ensure that command mode is running. Type: wq (write and quit) and press Enter.

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Nano

nano is ideal for short adjustments and straightforward text files because it is lightweight and requires little setup. It provides support for basic text manipulation functions, search and replace, and syntax highlighting. To create a text file using nano, follow the steps below: 

  1. Run nano with the desired filename as an argument. It will open a new buffer for editing the file filename.txt.

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  1. Start typing and editing the filename.txt. 

  2. To save and exit, press Ctrl + O to write the file, confirm the filename, and then press Ctrl + X to exit Nano.

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Emacs

emacs is a powerful and flexible text editor that supports syntax highlighting, multiple buffers, split windows, and integration with external tools and programming languages. To create a text file using emacs, follow the steps below: 

  1. Open emacs, with the desired filename as an argument.

  2. Start typing and editing the filename.txt. 

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  1. To save and exit, press Ctrl + X, followed by Ctrl + S to save the file, and then Ctrl + X, followed by Ctrl + C to exit Emacs.

Note: If a message states that "VIM command not found", "nano command not found" or "emacs command not found" in Linux, it typically means that the vim, nano or emacs text editor is not installed on the system, or it's not included in the PATH environment variable, which is a list of directories where the operating system looks for executable files.

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To resolve this, install the text editor first using the command: 

apt-get install vim
apt-get install nano 
apt-get install emacs

Gedit

An intuitive text editor that supports working with plain text and has syntax highlighting for programming languages. A straightforward graphical interface makes it usable for various tasks, from quick edits to complex document preparation.

  1. Open the Gedit Application: Launch Gedit either through the applications menu or by executing the following command in the terminal:

gedit example.txt

Gedit will create a new file if the specified one does not exist.

  1. Input Your Text: Type or paste your desired content into the editor.

  2. Save the File: Save your work with Ctrl + S or select File > Save. If creating a new file, specify a filename and a location.

  3. Verify: Return to the terminal and confirm the file exists with the ls command or review its content with cat.

Linux File Creation Recommendations

  • Ensure you have sufficient permissions to create files in the target directory. If they are insufficient, consider working in a directory where you have full rights (or elevate privileges with sudo).

  • Check if a file with the identical name is already present before using the > operator, as the command will overwrite existing content. To prevent data loss, opt for the append operator >>.

  • Familiarize yourself with the printf, echo, and text editors like vim or nano. These tools will help you reduce errors when working with files in Linux, as well as boost productivity.

  • Use printf for creating files requiring structured content, such as configuration files or scripts with precise formatting needs.

Conclusion

Now you have acquainted yourself with the fundamental skill of creating a file in Linux using the terminal! Using the Linux command line, several fast and efficient methods exist to create and manage text files. Apply several techniques to meet a different requirement using the touch, echo, cat, printf commands, or text editors like vim, nano, gedit, or emacs. Users can select the method that sufficiently meets their requirements, such as creating empty files, appending text, or significantly modifying material. In summary, any of these methods enable Linux users to easily and quickly handle text files straight from the command line.

Linux
01.06.2025
Reading time: 8 min
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Linux

Installing Arch Linux in a Cloud Environment

Arch Linux is a lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that provides users with extensive opportunities for customizing and optimizing their systems. It includes a minimal amount of preinstalled software and offers a console-based interface. In most cases, it is used by experienced users: professional developers, system administrators, or hackers. This is due to the complexity of its installation and subsequent configuration, which involves adding the required packages and components to the system. However, these difficulties are justified, because in the end the user gets exactly the system and services they need. In this article, we will explain how to install Arch Linux on your cloud server and perform its basic configuration. Advantages of Arch Linux It is worth noting that Arch Linux is ideally suited as an OS for a cloud server due to its low resource requirements. This distribution also has several other advantages: System UpdatesArch Linux updates automatically when a new OS version is released. Software InstallationPackages can be downloaded both over the network and from a local disk. In addition, the installed software does not need to be specifically compatible with Arch Linux. Rich RepositoriesArch Linux offers a wide variety of packages. Today, there are over 12,000 packages in the official repositories alone. In the community repository, there are even more — over 83,000. Up-to-date DocumentationThe official Arch Linux documentation is actively updated to reflect the latest changes and innovations. This ensures accurate and relevant system information. Active CommunityThis distribution has an active user community ready to help and share their experience. There are many forums, wikis, and repositories where you can find detailed instructions and guides for installation, configuration, and troubleshooting. 1. Preparing for Installation To follow this guide and install Arch Linux, you will need: A cloud server with any operating system (in our case, Debian 11); A link to the Arch Linux image from an official source; An additional disk, which you can attach under the Plan tab in the control panel. Step 1. To install Arch Linux on the server, you must first upload its installation image from an official source in .iso format. For example: wget https://mirror.rackspace.com/archlinux/iso/2025.06.01/archlinux-2025.06.01-x86_64.iso Step 2. Next, add a new disk where the installation image will be stored. It will appear in the system as /dev/sdb. You can specify the minimum disk size. Step 3. Write the installation image to the new disk: dd if=archlinux-2025.06.01-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdb The writing process will take some time. When finished, verify it with the following command: fdisk -l In the output, you will see that the installation image has been written to the new disk, creating two necessary partitions. Step 4. After writing the installation image, proceed to boot from it. To do this, go to the Access tab and boot the server from the recovery disk. Open the console in the control panel.  Step 5. In the console window, go to the Boot existing OS menu item and press Tab on your keyboard. This will allow you to edit the text at the bottom of the screen. Here, you need to manually replace hd0 with hd1, as shown in the figure below. After that, press Enter to launch the installation program. Step 6. In the system bootloader that appears, select the first option. 2. Partitioning the Disk Now we can partition the main disk (sda). In our case, there will be 3 partitions: a 300 MB UEFI partition (type EFI), a 700 MB swap partition (type Linux swap), and a main filesystem partition taking up all remaining space (type Linux). In your own installation, the number and size of partitions may differ depending on your requirements. Make sure there are no important files on the server’s disk, because it will be formatted later. You may also wish to back it up to preserve important data. Step 1. First, check whether there are any files on the disk you need to save: lsblk The screenshot below shows the list. For creating the described partitions, we will use a 25 GB disk — sda. It currently has Debian 11 installed, which does not contain important files. Step 2. To partition the disk, enter the following command: cfdisk /dev/sda Step 3. In the window that opens, you need to delete all existing partitions. To do this, select a partition and use the Delete button in the lower menu. Step 4. Next, select the New button in the lower menu to create a new partition. Step 5. Then specify the size of the partition to be created. In our case, this is 300 MB for UEFI. Step 6. In the next window, choose Primary. Step 7. The partition is now created, and you need to specify its type. Go to the Type menu and select EFI. Step 8. Now move to the Free space and create 2 more partitions, repeating steps 4 through 7. Partition details were listed at the beginning of this chapter. Step 9. Once all partitions have been created, go to the Write button and select it. To confirm, type yes in the field that appears. Step 10. Partitioning is now complete. To exit the tool, select the Quit button in the lower menu. Step 11. You can verify your work using the lsblk command again. Check in the output that all changes have been successfully applied. 3. Formatting and Mounting the Created Partitions At this stage, the created partitions will be formatted and mounted. Remember, all data will be erased in this process! Step 1. For the first partition, format it using the following command: mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1 This command will create a FAT32 filesystem, which is the recommended format for the UEFI partition. Step 2. Next, assign it a mount point: mkdir /mnt/efi mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/efi Step 3. For the second partition, perform special formatting: mkswap /dev/sda2 Step 4. Then activate the swap partition: swapon /dev/sda2 Step 5. Finally, format the system’s root partition: mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 Step 6. After formatting, create its mount point: mount /dev/sda3 /mnt After completing the formatting and mounting, your partitions will be ready for installing and configuring Arch Linux and its main components. 4. Installing the Main Arch Linux Components Step 1. First, let’s install the OS and its core components: pacstrap /mnt base linux grub openssh nano dhcpcd Step 2. Once the installation finishes, you need to generate the fstab file: genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab Generating the fstab file makes partition mounting management easier and ensures automatic and consistent mounting at system startup. 5. System Configuration Step 1. To configure Arch Linux after installation, you need to chroot into the OS without rebooting: arch-chroot /mnt Step 2. First, install the nano text editor: pacman -S nano Step 3. Uncomment the encoding for English in the relevant file (you would edit locale.gen): nano /etc/locale.gen Uncomment the line for en_US.UTF-8. After this, save the changes and exit nano, then generate the locales: locale-gen To enable the English language, execute: echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf Step 4. At this step, set up the system clock. For example:  ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Nicosia /etc/localtime The region is set. Now synchronize the hardware clock: hwclock --systohc Step 5. Next, set the hostname for your system: echo "hostname" > /etc/hostname Step 6. As the second-to-last step, set the root password. Run: passwd You will be prompted to enter and confirm the password. Step 7. Lastly, set up the previously installed GRUB bootloader to boot the server: grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda Then create the GRUB configuration file: grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg This command will automatically configure GRUB. Step 8. Arch Linux is now successfully installed. Exit the chroot: exit Then go to the Access tab in your control panel and switch the server to standard boot mode. After that, click Save and Reboot. You can remove the additional disk after this step. Step 9. The system will boot, but it is not ready for use yet. First, connect to the server and enable the DHCP client daemon: systemctl enable dhcpcd Then start it: systemctl start dhcpcd Make sure the service shows the status active (running). Step 10. Next, configure the SSH connection. First, create a backup of the sshd configuration: cp /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/backup.sshdconf Then set PermitRootLogin to Yes in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file: nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config Finally, enable the SSH daemon: systemctl enable sshd And start it: systemctl start sshd When checking with systemctl status sshd, the service should show active (running) status. Don’t forget to add and configure SSH keys before connecting to the server. 6. Additional Configuration The installation is complete, but you can also perform additional system configuration by reviewing the official Arch Linux setup documentation. To install packages, use the command: pacman -S package_name To update the system, use: pacman -Suy Conclusion In this guide, we reviewed the process of installing Arch Linux on your cloud server and performed its basic configuration. We used a temporary Debian 11 OS and an additional disk for the installation image. By following these steps, you can create a powerful and flexible virtual environment for developing, testing, and running applications based on Arch Linux.
03 July 2025 · 8 min to read

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