TRUNCATE(1) User Commands TRUNCATE(1)
NAME
truncate - shrink or extend the size of a file to the specified size
SYNOPSIS
truncate OPTION... FILE...
DESCRIPTION
Shrink or extend the size of each FILE to the specified size
A FILE argument that does not exist is created.
If a FILE is larger than the specified size, the extra data is lost. If
a FILE is shorter, it is extended and the sparse extended part (hole)
reads as zero bytes.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-c, --no-create
do not create any files
-o, --io-blocks
treat SIZE as number of IO blocks instead of bytes
-r, --reference=RFILE
base size on RFILE
-s, --size=SIZE
set or adjust the file size by SIZE bytes
--help display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit
The SIZE argument is an integer and optional unit (example: 10K is
10*1024). Units are K,M,G,T,P,E,Z,Y,R,Q (powers of 1024) or KB,MB,...
(powers of 1000). Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K, MiB=M, and
so on.
SIZE may also be prefixed by one of the following modifying characters:
'+' extend by, '-' reduce by, '<' at most, '>' at least, '/' round down
to multiple of, '%' round up to multiple of.
AUTHOR
Written by Padraig Brady.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
SEE ALSO
dd(1), truncate(2), ftruncate(2)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/truncate>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) truncate invocation'
Packaged by Debian (9.7-3)
Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/li-
censes/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
GNU coreutils 9.7 June 2025 TRUNCATE(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 9 08:23:44 CET 2025.