How can I create an empty file from emacs, ideally from within a dired buffer?
For example, I've just opened a Python module in dired mode, created a new directory, opened that in dired, and now need to add an empty __init__.py
file in the directory.
If I use C-x C-f __init__.py RET C-x C-s
then emacs doesn't create the file because no changes have been made to it. I would have to type in the file, save it, delete my typing and then save it again for that to work.
Thanks
Here's an adaptation of dired-create-directory
. It works the same way, so as well as a plain filename, you can also specify new parent directories (to be created under the current directory) for the file (e.g. foo/bar/filename
).
(eval-after-load 'dired
'(progn
(define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "C-c n") 'my-dired-create-file)
(defun my-dired-create-file (file)
"Create a file called FILE.
If FILE already exists, signal an error."
(interactive
(list (read-file-name "Create file: " (dired-current-directory))))
(let* ((expanded (expand-file-name file))
(try expanded)
(dir (directory-file-name (file-name-directory expanded)))
new)
(if (file-exists-p expanded)
(error "Cannot create file %s: file exists" expanded))
;; Find the topmost nonexistent parent dir (variable `new')
(while (and try (not (file-exists-p try)) (not (equal new try)))
(setq new try
try (directory-file-name (file-name-directory try))))
(when (not (file-exists-p dir))
(make-directory dir t))
(write-region "" nil expanded t)
(when new
(dired-add-file new)
(dired-move-to-filename))))))