title: How to remove X bytes from the end of a large file without reading the whole file?
body: <p>In Linux, I have a rather large file with some extraneous information tacked on to the end of it.  Let's say for example I know there are 314 bytes of extraneous data at the end of a 1.6GB file.  </p>
  
  <p>Of course it is very easy and efficient to add more data to the end of a file, but what can I do to remove it without having to copy the first portion of that file into another (or overwrite said file)?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit</strong></p>
  
  <p>I'm seeing some good advice on doing this in C.  I was hoping to script it from the commandline, but failing that I would be more inclined to doing it in python than C.  </p>
  
  <p>I see that python has a truncate method on its file object but it seems to be demolishing my file no matter how i use it--I should be able to figure this one out, but of course answers are more than welcome still.</p>