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Your IP address is in a range that has been blocked on all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. The block was made by ‪AntiCompositeNumber‬. The reason given is Open proxy/Webhost: Visit the FAQ if you are affected .
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You can view and copy the source of this page:

((Short description|Computer file containing no data))
<ref>((Cite web |last=Team |first=Tech Insight |date=2020-08-07 |title=Size vs Size on Disk - Why is there a difference? |url=https://www.businesstechweekly.com/tech-insights/size-vs-size-on-disk/ |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=Businesstechweekly.com |language=en-GB))</ref>((Multiple issues|
((refimprove|date=July 2021))
((Notability|date=April 2023))
))
A '''zero-byte file''' or '''zero-length file''' is a [[computer file]] containing no [[data]]; that is, it has a length or size of zero bytes.((sfnp|Mathai|2019))

== Creation ==
There are many ways that could manually create a zero-byte file, for example, saving empty content in a [[text editor]], using [[utilities]] provided by [[operating systems]], or programming to create it. On [[Unix-like]] systems, the shell command <code>$ [[touch (command)|touch]] filename</code> results in a zero-byte file ((mono|filename)). Zero-byte files may arise in cases where a program creates a file but aborts or is interrupted prematurely while writing to it. Because writes are [[cache (computing)|cached]] in [[Random-access memory|memory]] and only flushed to disk at a later time ([[page cache]]), a program that does not flush its writes to disk or terminate normally may result in a zero-byte file. When the zero-byte file is made, file system does not record the file's content on storage, but only updates its index table.

=== Metadata ===
Even a file describing an empty [[word processor]] [[document]], an [[image file]] with zero-by-zero dimensions, or an [[audio file]] of length zero seconds usually still contains [[metadata]] identifying the [[file format]] and describing some basic attributes of the file; it results in the file with some positive size. Some very simple formats do not use metadata, such as [[ASCII]] [[text file]]s; these may validly be zero bytes (a common convention terminates text files with a one- or two-byte newline, however). 

An empty file has a minimum disk size that depends on the disk block size, which can also be referred to as cluster size or IO block size, that depends in turn on the [[filesystem]]. This IO block size can be discovered through different utilities in the [[operating system]], such as ''[[Stat (system call)|stat]]'' in [[Unix|Unix systems]].<ref>((Cite web |last=Team |first=Tech Insight |date=2020-08-07 |title=Size vs Size on Disk - Why is there a difference? |url=https://www.businesstechweekly.com/tech-insights/size-vs-size-on-disk/ |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=Businesstechweekly.com |language=en-GB))</ref><ref>((Cite web |title=Understanding IO Block size |url=https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/345984/understanding-io-block-size |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=Unix & Linux Stack Exchange |language=en))</ref>
== Uses ==
Zero-byte files cannot be loaded or used by most applications. In some cases, zero-byte files may be used to convey information like file metadata (for example, its [[filename]] may contain an instruction to a user viewing a directory listing such as ((mono|documents-have-been-moved-to-partition-D)), etc.); or to put in a directory to ensure that it is non-empty, since some tools such as backup and [[revision control]] software may ignore the empty directories.

IF Exist - Testing:
Use the zero-byte (zero length) file as an "exit" ramp or for a "goto" statement within a batch-file or script.  It provides a directory listing, but requires no disk space.
  IF EXIST C:\NOTHING.TXT EXIT
  IF NOT EXIST C:\NOTHING.TXT GOTO START
  :START
  REM Create the zero-length file
  C:\>type null>nothing.txt
  :EXIT

== References ==
((reflist))

== Bibliography ==
* ((cite web |last1=Mathai |first1=Anith |title=Zero-byte files. A big problem in eDiscovery. What are they, and is there anything you can do about them? |date=2019 |url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/zero-byte-files-big-problem-ediscovery-what-anything-you-anith-mathai |website=www.linkedin.com |language=en))

((Computer files))

[[Category:Computer files]]

((software-type-stub))

Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page (help):

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