How to Create several files from a list in a text file?

Question

Say I have a list in a file which contains filenames (without spaces):

filename
othername
somethingelse
...

• Each line followed by a CR, One "filename" per line

Is there some kind of touch script I can use to create hundreds of files with titles set by a list?

It would also be incredibly helpful if I could fill each file with content upon creation.

Any bashers have any tips: I'm using Ubuntu 10.04

Thanks

Answer 1

To simply create the files, assuming that file_full_of_files_names is a text file with whitespace-delimited filenames:

cat file_full_of_files_names | xargs touch

To actually fill them with content first, from a file called initial_content:

cat file_full_of_files_names | tr ' \t' '\n\n' | while read filename; do
    if test -f "$filename"; then
       echo "Skipping \"$filename\", it already exists"
    else
       cp -i initial_content "$filename"
    fi
done