Using shell redirection to truncate rather than additional commands/forks/files, thanks to Justin Pryzby <jpryzby@quoininc.com>.

functions/aliases.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# aliases.sh - internal shell aliases
+# Copyright (C) 2006-2007 Daniel Baumann <daniel@debian.org>
+#
+# live-helper comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see COPYING.
+# This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
+# under certain conditions; see COPYING for details.
+
+set -e
+
+Truncate ()
+{
+	for FILE in ${@}
+	do
+		: > ${FILE}
+	done
+}

helpers/lh_chroot_hosts

@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ EOF
 		else
 			# Blank out hosts file, don't remove in case
 			# its a symlink, as in the case of exposedroot mode
-			cat /dev/null > chroot/etc/hosts
+			Truncate chroot/etc/hosts
 		fi
 
 		# Removing stage file

helpers/lh_chroot_resolv

@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ case "${1}" in
 			mv chroot/etc/resolv.conf.orig chroot/etc/resolv.conf
 		else
 			# Truncating resolv file
-			cat < /dev/null > chroot/etc/resolv.conf
+			Truncate chroot/etc/resolv.conf
 		fi
 
 		# Removing stage file

hooks/mini

@@ -40,5 +40,5 @@ mkdir -p /var/lib/apt/lists/partial
 # Truncating logs
 for FILE in $(find /var/log/ -type f)
 do
-	cat < /dev/null > $FILE
+	: > ${FILE}
 done

hooks/minimal

@@ -32,5 +32,5 @@ mkdir -p /var/lib/apt/lists/partial
 # Truncating logs
 for FILE in $(find /var/log/ -type f)
 do
-	cat < /dev/null > $FILE
+	: > ${FILE}
 done