User Commands                                            TOUCH(1)



NAME
     touch - change file timestamps

SYNOPSIS
     touch [OPTION]... FILE...

DESCRIPTION
     Update the access and modification times of each FILE to the
     current time.

     A FILE argument that does not exist is created empty, unless
     -c or -h is supplied.

     A FILE argument string of - is handled specially and  causes
     touch  to change the times of the file associated with stan-
     dard output.

     Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for  short
     options too.

     -a   change only the access time

     -c, --no-create
          do not create any files

     -d, --date=STRING
          parse STRING and use it instead of current time

     -f   (ignored)

     -h, --no-dereference
          affect each symbolic link  instead  of  any  referenced
          file (useful only on systems that can change the times-
          tamps of a symlink)

     -m   change only the modification time

     -r, --reference=FILE
          use this file's times instead of current time

     -t STAMP
          use [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss] instead of current time

     --time=WORD
          change the specified time:  WORD is access,  atime,  or
          use:   equivalent  to  -a  WORD  is  modify  or  mtime:
          equivalent to -m

     --help
          display this help and exit

     --version



GNU coreutils 8.5    Last change: April 2010                    1






User Commands                                            TOUCH(1)



          output version information and exit

     Note that the -d and -t options accept  different  time-date
     formats.

DATE STRING
     The --date=STRING is a mostly  free  format  human  readable
     date  string  such  as  "Sun, 29 Feb 2004 16:21:42 -0800" or
     "2004-02-29 16:21:42"  or  even  "next  Thursday".   A  date
     string  may  contain items indicating calendar date, time of
     day, time zone, day of week, relative time,  relative  date,
     and numbers.  An empty string indicates the beginning of the
     day.  The date string format is more complex than is  easily
     documented  here but is fully described in the info documen-
     tation.

AUTHOR
     Written by Paul Rubin, Arnold Robbins,  Jim  Kingdon,  David
     MacKenzie, and Randy Smith.

REPORTING BUGS
     Report touch bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
     GNU             coreutils             home             page:
     <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
     General        help        using        GNU        software:
     <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
     Report        touch        translation        bugs        to
     <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright c 2010 Free  Software  Foundation,  Inc.   License
     GPLv3+:      GNU      GPL     version     3     or     later
     <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
     This is free software: you are free to change and  redistri-
     bute  it.   There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
     law.

SEE ALSO
     The full documentation for touch is maintained as a  Texinfo
     manual.   If  the  info  and  touch  programs  are  properly
     installed at your site, the command

          info coreutils touch invocation

     should give you access to the complete manual.










GNU coreutils 8.5    Last change: April 2010                    2