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Create file from command line

We can create files from command line in two ways. The first way is to use fsutil command and the other way is to use echo command. If you want to write any specific data in the file then use echo command. If you are not bothered about the data in the file but just want to create a file of some specific size then you can use fsutil command.

To create file using echo

echo some-text  > filename.txt

Example:

C:\>echo This is a sample text file > sample.txt
C:\>type sample.txt
This is a sample text file
C:\>

To create file using fsutil

fsutil file createnew filename number_of_bytes

Example:

C:\data>fsutil file createnew sample2.txt 2000
File C:\data\sample2.txt is created
C:\data>dir
01/23/2016  09:34 PM     2,000 sample2.txt
C:\data>

Limitations

Fsutil can be used only by administrators. For non-admin users it throws up below error.

c:\>fsutil file /?
The FSUTIL utility requires that you have administrative privileges.
c:\>
16 comments… add one
  • Me

    Thank you for the quick and dirty method since windows seems to lack the “touch” command.

    • Yogi

      How can we use these commands to ‘touch’ a file. Could anyone provide the exact command that can work as linux ‘touch’ for any type of file?

    • Jimmyt1988

      Windows does not lack “touch”. It is echo. As the post describes? type: echo “” Blah.cpp

    • Shubhobroto

      for Windows users, try
      echo README.md

      touch works on a UNIX system.

  • aaron

    dude, this isnt working on our school’s computers, can you tell another method that works on windows 8 computers please?

    • oof

      lmao it works at school PC

    • Make sure that you are typing in the code the right way. It happened to me when I typed in “echo This is a sample text file sample.txt”.

  • Monirul Islam

    Thanks!

  • hao ngoc Duong

    thanks!!

  • MikePal

    If you want to create a file with NO text in it do this:
    at the CLI type “Echo.”: Your output should look like this:
    C:\Temp>echo.

    C:\Temp>

    To write to a file:
    C:\Temp> Echo. >test.txt

    This will create a file with single space in the file.

  • Akshay

    I tried:
    copy nul > file.txt

  • fred

    copy con somefile.txt

    • fred

      copy con somefile.txt
      and then press and press ^Z (Ctrl+z) and press

  • John

    How can I create multiple files at a time

  • Jovan W.

    @echo off > your-file-name.extension

  • belide

    this is awesome…thanks a lot

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