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!
Cenobyte 
@rebane2001 This is awesome for clearing out files. Some log files when you're trying to isolate. Love learning new commands. Thank you!
draeath@cenobyte @rebane2001 I usually just use
truncate or echo "" > whatever but this is a lot more terse. I like it.
always tired@draeath @cenobyte @rebane2001
With echo "" you don't make an empty file though. It's a file with one octet (newline) then.
@project1enigma @cenobyte @rebane2001 true unless you pass the argument not to add that... But at that point things are getting silly and there's definitely better ways. But in most of the things I work with, a truly empty file and a file with only a newline in it are close enough to equivalent.