#1864: Cactus build fails on file systems that do not update timestamps all the time ---------------------+------------------------------------------------------ Reporter: rhaas | Owner: Type: defect | Status: review Priority: major | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: backport ---------------------+------------------------------------------------------
Comment (by eschnett):
The difference between {{{: >FILE}}} and {{{echo 1 >FILE}}} is that the former creates an empty file, while the latter writes something into the file. Writing an empty string (as you suggest) is also fine, but is the same as just writing {{{echo}}}, as both simply write a newline character.
I don't see a downside, except (tongue-in-cheek) the increase in build time for calling {{{echo}}}, and the increase in disk space for creating non-empty files.