echo prints a newline, and the >> tells the shell to append that newline to the file, creating if it doesn't already exist.
In order to properly answer the question, though, I'd need to know what you would want to happen if the file already does exist. If you wanted to replace its current contents with the newline, for example, you would use
echo > file.txt
EDIT: and in response to Justin's comment, if you want to add the newline only if the file didn't already exist, you can do
test -e file.txt || echo > file.txt
At least that works in Bash, I'm not sure if it also does in other shells.
If you're wanting this as a script, the following Bash script should do what you want (plus tell you when the file already exists):
#!/bin/bash
if [ -e $1 ]; then
echo "File $1 already exists!"
else
echo >> $1
fi
If you don't want the "already exists" message, you can use:
#!/bin/bash
if [ ! -e $1 ]; then
echo >> $1
fi
Edit about using:
Save whichever version with a name you like, let's say "create_file" (quotes mine, you don't want them in the file name). Then, to make the file executatble, at a command prompt do:
The $1 is a special shell variable which takes the first argument on the command line after the program name; i.e. $1 will pick up NAME_OF_NEW_FILE in the above usage example.
#!/bin/bash
file_location=/home/test/$1.json
if [ -e $policy ]; then
echo "File $1.json already exists!"
else
cat > $file_location <<EOF
{
"contact": {
"name": "xyz",
"phonenumber": "xxx-xxx-xxxx"
}
}
EOF
fi
This code checks if the given JSON file of the user is present in test home directory or not. If it's not present it will create it with the content. You can modify the file location and content according to your needs.