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Raptor
Asked: 2012-09-13 00:56:41 +0800 CST

Install Ubuntu truncate command to Mac OS X 10.7

  • 772

Is there any way to install Ubuntu's truncate command to Mac OS X 10.7 in order to use the command in Terminal shell?

mac-osx

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    This shouldn't really be in Server Fault, probably Super User or Ask Different, but you can install a lot of binaries by using homebrew, found here:

    Link

    Firstly you'll need to install command line tools for Xcode, which will probably require you to purchase it if you havn't already.

    Once you've done this, run:

    ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

    To install homebrew, then when it's installed, run:

    brew install truncate
    • 17

  2. Update:

    As of March 2015 truncate is no longer available in Homebrew as a standalone formula.

    As truncate is part of GNU Coreutils you should install it on OS X with the following command:

    > brew install coreutils

    After installation truncate will be available under the name gtruncate. Note that all programs from Coreutils will be available with the prefix g.

    • 17

  3. When truncate is not available you can often use dd instead. Eg.

    Make a file full of zeros:

    dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/youroutputfile bs=1m count=50

    Truncate an existing file:

    dd if=yourinputfile of=/tmp/youroutputfile bs=1k count=1

    Note: the OS X dd uses lower case unit letters where GNU dd uses upper case.

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  4. One point of consideration is if the truncated file is the same file or a new file with the same name. Of importance for log files that are still being written-to, or being tailed.

    :> file

    Works on both *nix and macOS to truncate a file in-place.

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