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?
Jeff@ChaosKitsune @rebane2001 : is the null command in the POSIX shell standard. It's a built-in that outputs nothing and exits immediately with a status of zero (effectively the same as /bin/true).
So the shell parses ':> afile' as "null command with output redirected to afile"