Creating a file with $SIZE

[Robert Bossy]

cokofreedom at gmail.com wrote:
> On Mar 12, 2:44 pm, Robert Bossy <Robert.Bo... at jouy.inra.fr> wrote:
>   
>> Matt Nordhoff wrote:
>>     
>>> Robert Bossy wrote:
>>>       
>>>> k.i.n.g. wrote:
>>>>         
>>>>> I think I am not clear with my question, I am sorry. Here goes the
>>>>> exact requirement.
>>>>>           
>>>>> We use dd command in Linux to create a file with of required size. In
>>>>> similar way, on windows I would like to use python to take the size of
>>>>> the file( 50MB, 1GB ) as input from user and create a uncompressed
>>>>> file of the size given by the user.
>>>>>           
>>>>> ex: If user input is 50M, script should create 50Mb of blank or empty
>>>>> file
>>>>>           
>>>> def make_blank_file(path, size):
>>>>     f = open(path, 'w')
>>>>     f.seek(size - 1)
>>>>     f.write('\0')
>>>>     f.close()
>>>>         
>>>> I'm not sure the f.seek() trick will work on all platforms, so you can:
>>>>         
>>>> def make_blank_file(path, size):
>>>>     f = open(path, 'w')
>>>>     f.write('\0' * size)
>>>>     f.close()
>>>>         
>>> I point out that a 1 GB string is probably not a good idea.
>>>       
>>> def make_blank_file(path, size):
>>>     chunksize = 10485760 # 10 MB
>>>     chunk = '\0' * chunksize
>>>     left = size
>>>     fh = open(path, 'wb')
>>>     while left > chunksize:
>>>         fh.write(chunk)
>>>         left -= chunksize
>>>     if left > 0:
>>>         fh.write('\0' * left)
>>>     fh.close()
>>>       
>> Indeed! Maybe the best choice for chunksize would be the file's buffer
>> size... I won't search the doc how to get the file's buffer size because
>> I'm too cool to use that function and prefer the seek() option since
>> it's lighning fast regardless the size of the file and it takes near to
>> zero memory.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> RB
>>     
>
> But what platforms does it work on / not work on?
>   
Posix. It's been ages since I touched Windows, so I don't know if XP and 
Vista are posix or not.
Though, as Marco Mariani mentioned, this may create a fragmented file. 
It may or may not be an hindrance depending on what you want to do with 
it, but the circumstances in which this is a problem are quite rare.

RB