TRUNCATE(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 26 versions
, in arch rolling

🌸 NAME 🌸

truncate — shrink or extend the size of a file to the specified size, bestie 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

truncate OPTION... FILE...

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Okay so here's the tea ☕: truncate shrinks or extends the size of each FILE to the size you told it. That's it. That's the whole job. Iconic, honestly.

A FILE argument that does not exist? Yeah, it gets created. New file, who dis 🎀

If a FILE is larger than the size you specified, the extra data is lost — like, gone gone, no takebacks 😭. If a FILE is shorter, it gets extended, and the sparse extended part (the hole 🕳️) reads as zero bytes. Free real estate, but make it zeroes.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. Yes bestie, if it's required long, it's required short. No shortcuts on the shortcuts 🙈
  • -c, --no-create — do not create any files. Chill. Just don't make anything new ✋
  • -o, --io-blocks — treat SIZE as a number of IO blocks instead of bytes. Different unit, same drama 🧚
  • -r, --reference=RFILE — base the size on RFILE. Copy her measurements, periodt 👑
  • -s, --size=SIZE — set or adjust the file size by SIZE bytes. The main character option fr fr 💅
  • --help — display this help and exit. Your little cheat sheet 🫶
  • --version — output version information and exit. Receipts, always 🧾

🦋 THE SIZE ARGUMENT 🦋

The SIZE argument is an integer plus an 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. It's giving very thorough, and we love that for her 🌈

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. King behaviour, no cap 👑

💜 REPORTING BUGS 💜

Found a bug? Tell the girlies:

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. (Read that again bestie — no warranty, fr fr 💀)

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/truncate> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) truncate invocation' — iykyk 📖

GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026 — that's the whole TRUNCATE(1) vibe check, bestie. Go resize something responsibly, mwah 💋✨🦋

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