In bash, an empty file can be created with:
> empty_file.txt
In zsh, the same command gets stuck and needs to be stopped. The file gets created nonetheless.
I would like to know what is causing this behaviour and/or how to make it similar to bash?
Edit: typo.
If you don't specify a command for your redirection, then Bash will behave (accordingly to POSIX) as if the command was true. By default, unless in compatibility mode, zsh will instead behave as if the command was cat.
You can simply explicitly specify the command true (or its harder-to-read alias :) to make both shells behave the same:
: > empty_file.txt
Here's man zsh explaining the behavior and the options you can use to tweak it:
REDIRECTIONS WITH NO COMMAND
When a simple command consists of one or more redirection operators
and zero or more parameter assignments, but no command name, zsh
can behave in several ways.
If the parameter NULLCMD is not set or the option CSH_NULLCMD is
set, an error is caused. This is the csh behavior and CSH_NULLCMD
is set by default when emulating csh.
If the option SH_NULLCMD is set, the builtin `:' is inserted as a
command with the given redirections. This is the default when emu‐
lating sh or ksh.
Otherwise, if the parameter NULLCMD is set, its value will be used
as a command with the given redirections. If both NULLCMD and
READNULLCMD are set, then the value of the latter will be used in‐
stead of that of the former when the redirection is an input. The
default for NULLCMD is `cat' and for READNULLCMD is `more'. Thus
< file
shows the contents of file on standard output, with paging if that
is a terminal. NULLCMD and READNULLCMD may refer to shell func‐
tions.