TRUNCATE(1) General Commands Manual TRUNCATE(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

truncate - Shrink or extend the size of each file to the specified size.

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**truncate** \[OPTION]... \[FILE]...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Shrink or extend the size of each file to the specified size.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**-o**, **--io-blocks**](#o)

treat SIZE as the number of I/O blocks of the file rather than bytes

[**-c**, **--no-create**](#c)

do not create files that do not exist

[**-r**, **--reference** *<RFILE>*](#r)

base the size of each file on the size of RFILE

[**-s**, **--size** *<SIZE>*](#s)

set or adjust the size of each file according to SIZE, which is in bytes unless --io-blocks is specified

[**-h**, **--help**](#h)

Print help

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Print version

<*FILE*>

# [EXTRA](#EXTRA)

SIZE is an integer with an optional prefix and optional unit. The available units (K, M, G, T, P, E, Z, and Y) use the following format:  
'KB' => 1000 (kilobytes)  
'K' => 1024 (kibibytes)  
'MB' => 1000\*1000 (megabytes)  
'M' => 1024\*1024 (mebibytes)  
'GB' => 1000\*1000\*1000 (gigabytes)  
'G' => 1024\*1024\*1024 (gibibytes) SIZE may also be prefixed by one of the following to adjust the size of each file based on its current size:  
'+' => extend by  
'-' => reduce by  
'<' => at most  
'>' => at least  
'/' => round down to multiple of  
'%' => round up to multiple of

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-10-16

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Document: truncate(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r4 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils