touch Command#

The touch command is used to modify the time properties of a file or directory, including access time and modification time. If the file does not exist, the system will create a new file.

Syntax#

touch [OPTION]... FILE...

Options#

• -a: Change only the access time.
• -c, --no-create: Do not create any files.
• -d, --date=STRING: Parse STRING and use it as the access and modification time.
• -f: This option is ignored.
• -h, --no-dereference: Affect each symbolic link instead of any referenced file, useful only on systems that can change the timestamp of symbolic links.
• -m: Change only the modification time.
• -r, --reference=FILE: Use the time of this file instead of the current time.
• -t STAMP: Use [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss] instead of the current time.
• --time=WORD: Change the specified time, where WORD is access, atime, or use, equivalent to -a; and WORD is Modify or mtime, equivalent to -m.
• --help: Display help information.
• --version: Display version information.

Examples#

Create an empty file, if the file already exists, it will change the file's access time.

touch /tmp/file.txt

Create multiple files.

touch /tmp/file1.txt /tmp/file2.txt /tmp/file3.txt

Create files with a template file name.

tmpwatch -am 30 –nodirs /tmp/

Change the access time of a file and view the file attributes.

touch -a /tmp/file.txt && stat /tmp/file.txt

Change the modification time of a file and view the file attributes.

touch -m /tmp/file.txt && stat /tmp/file.txt

Change both the access time and modification time and set a specific access and modification time.

touch -am -t 202007010000.00 /tmp/file.txt && stat /tmp/file.txt

Daily Question#

References#