Function: make-empty-file

make-empty-file is an interactive and byte-compiled function defined in files.el.gz.

Signature

(make-empty-file FILENAME &optional PARENTS)

Documentation

Create an empty file FILENAME.

Optional arg PARENTS, if non-nil then creates parent dirs as needed.

If called interactively, then PARENTS is non-nil.

Other relevant functions are documented in the file group.

View in manual

Probably introduced at or before Emacs version 27.1.

Key Bindings

Shortdoc

;; file
(make-empty-file "/tmp/foo")

Source Code

;; Defined in /usr/src/emacs/lisp/files.el.gz
(defun make-empty-file (filename &optional parents)
  "Create an empty file FILENAME.
Optional arg PARENTS, if non-nil then creates parent dirs as needed.

If called interactively, then PARENTS is non-nil."
  (interactive
   (let ((filename (read-file-name "Create empty file: ")))
     (list filename t)))
  (when (and (file-exists-p filename) (null parents))
    (signal 'file-already-exists `("File exists" ,filename)))
  (let ((paren-dir (file-name-directory filename)))
    (when (and paren-dir (not (file-exists-p paren-dir)))
      (make-directory paren-dir parents)))
  (write-region "" nil filename nil 0))