Today I Learned

hashrocket A Hashrocket project

A Better File Wiper 📂

A tried-and-true debugging technique is to tail the test log:

$ tail -f log/test.log

When the output gets noisy, we might 'wipe' the log by removing it, so that it only contains the output from a single action:

$ rm log/test.log && rspec spec/features/user_logs_in_spec.rb

A better way to do this is to overwrite the file, like so:

$ echo '' > log/test.log

This wipes the file without replacing it, which preserves its serial number. It's less destructive, and allows other processes interacting with the file to finish their work.

Here's an example of this principle in action, using ls -i. Notice how the file's serial number changes when we replace the file, but not when we ovewrite it.

$ ls -i *.txt
27232432 foobar.txt
$ rm foobar.txt
$ touch foobar.txt
$ ls -i *.txt
27232453 foobar.txt
$ echo '' > foobar.txt
$ ls -i *.txt
27232453 foobar.txt

h/t Brian Dunn

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