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In this bash article, we will learn how to overwrite files in Linux. For this, we will learn different methods and Linux commands to overwrite files in bash using Linux operating system.

Before we begin, we must understand what it means to overwrite a file in Linux.

Different Ways to Overwrite Files in Linux

Overwriting is the act of completely replacing one implementation with another. To overwrite anything is to replace it with something else, obliterating the original.

Using Linux system, we often need to overwrite and delete file contents. So, let us learn various methods.

>Overwrite files using the symbol

Remember that > ​​and >> are used for two different operations. A single greater-than> operator empties and overwrites the specified file, while the >> operator appends lines to the end of the supplied file.

Therefore, we will use > to overwrite our file. In the following example, we use echo with the > operator to overwrite an existing file using abid.

Sample code:

echo "abid" > 'Users/Name/Desktop/Namefile.txt'

Use Force cp command to overwrite files without confirmation

One of the commonly used commands used to copy files and directories on Linux and other Linux operating systems is cpthe command, which stands for copy.

Here, we will see how to use Linux's cp command to force an unconfirmed overwrite of a copy operation. When we use the cp command, it usually overwrites the destination file or directory as shown.

The following are examples of how the cp command typically overwrites the destination directory and files.

Sample code:

$ cp file.c bak

Use the -i flag to overwrite the file to add an interactive prompt

If we want to override and add an interactive prompt, we can use the -i option and click y. Check the example below:

Sample code:

$ cp -i file.c bak

This line of code brings up an interactive prompt when overwriting a file:

cp: overwrite 'bak/file.c'? y

We can also overwrite files without an interactive prompt. See the example below:

Sample code:

$ \cp file.c bak

Use the chmod command to overwrite read-only files

We can overwrite any file in two situations: when you have administrative access to the document's properties, or when you do not. Consider the following fix for this issue.

In Linux, we can use the chmod command to change the attributes of a file. It has the following short command:

Sample code:

$ chmod [refrence] [operator] [mode] file.txt

Overwrite files using the shred command

The shred command is used to securely erase data and devices.

This command overwrites a file to hide its contents and optionally deletes it, making it unretrievable by any program on the Linux/Unix system.

We use rm command in terminal to delete files from the system. Files deleted using rm command can be restored using this software.

However, files deleted using shredthe command are irrecoverable because shredthe command overwrites the file three times with various patterns.

In Linux/Unix systems, by using the terminal, we can use the shred command to overwrite the entries of a file and declare them unrecoverable as shown below.

Sample code:

$ shred file.txt