Sometimes we need big files for testing purposes, without any concern for the files' content. For example, when testing uploads, downloads & responding to changes in network performance, we are likely to want files of various sizes.
macOS comes with a helpful utility command to create a file of any size over 512 bytes called
`mkfile`:$ mkfile FILE_SIZE FILE_NAMEIn the
`FILE_SIZE` option, we can optionally use a suffixes to note the unit of the value `b` - bytes (the deafult), `k` - kilobytes, `m` - megabytes or `g` - gigabytes.For example, the following command produces an empty two gigabyte file named
`big-file.ext`:$ mkfile 2g big-file.extNote the following multiplication factors are applied to the
`FILE_SIZE` value:| Unit | Factor | Examples |
|---|---|---|
`b` | 512 | For 512 bytes: `1b`, for 1kb (1024 bytes): `2b` |
`k` | 1024 | For 1kb (1024 bytes): `1k`, for 1mb (1,048,576 bytes): `1024k` |
`m` | 1048576 | For 1mb (1,048,576 bytes): `1m`, for 1gb (1,073,741,824 bytes): `1024m` |
`g` | 1073741824 | For 1mb (1,073,741,824 bytes): `1g`, for 2gb (2,147,483,648 bytes): `1g` |
See the man page for
`mkfile` for more information.$ man mkfile