Rebanein linux you can use the evil bird emoticon (:>) to destroy files, eg `:> important_document.txt`
the bird will eat the file and leave it completely empty!
Leah 
@rebane2001 hmm I suppose thats because its writing nothing into the file but I dont understand the reason for the
Id assume it works without?
Im guessing
: (I mean yeah it does make the face but from a commands perspective I mean)Id assume it works without?
Im guessing
: is ignored or perhaps written into the file?
Lambda@ChaosKitsune @rebane2001 : is the no-op built-in in POSIX shells.
Pink Rhododendron@lambda @ChaosKitsune @rebane2001 does that like actually run the no-op in assembly//machine level ?? or actually do nothing and return 0 ??
@pinkRhododendron @ChaosKitsune @rebane2001 the latter, there's no reason the *implementation* of the shell built-in would have to use an extra machine instruction that does nothing (though maybe the compiler sneakily inserts one anyway, e.g. for alignment reasons!)