Use of touch in "Automating a Variant Calling Workflow" lesson in Data Wrangling and Processing for Genomics

[cpaisie]

I was reviewing the lesson and was confused about why touch was used to create a file where the shell script was written. The lesson explains that touch allows for the creation of a file without opening it, but doesn't make it clear why you would want to create a file without opening it. Additionally, the use of nano to begin writing the script immediately after using touch to create it makes it seem as though the use of touch was redundant. Perhaps additional clarification could be provided regarding a situation where one would want to create a file and then come back later and actually write to the file.

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