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TOUCH(1)                  BSD General Commands Manual                 TOUCH(1)

NAME
     touch -- change file access and modification times

SYNOPSIS
     touch [-acfhm] [-d human-datetime] [--date human-datetime] [-r file]
           [--reference file] [-t datetime] file ...

DESCRIPTION
     The touch utility changes the access and modification times of files to
     the current time of day.  If the file doesn't exist, it is created with
     default permissions.

     The following options are available:

     -a                 Change the access time of the file.  The modification
                        time of the file is not changed unless the -m flag is
                        also specified.

     -c                 Do not create the file if it does not exist.  The
                        touch utility does not treat this as an error.  No
                        error messages are displayed and the exit value is not
                        affected.

     -d human-datetime

     --date human-datetime
                        Parse human-datetime using the human datetime parser
                        parsedate(3).

     -f                 This flag has no effect; it is accepted for
                        compatibility reasons.

     -h                 If file is a symbolic link, access and/or modification
                        time of the link is changed.  This option implies -c.

     -m                 Change the modification time of the file.  The access
                        time of the file is not changed unless the -a flag is
                        also specified.

     -r file

     --reference file   Use the access and modifications times from file
                        instead of the current time of day.

     -t datetime        Change the access and modification times to the
                        specified time.  The argument datetime should be in
                        the form "[[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]" where each pair of
                        letters represents the following:

                              CC      The first two digits of the year (the
                                      century).
                              YY      The second two digits of the year.  If
                                      "YY" is specified, but "CC" is not, a
                                      value for "YY" between 69 and 99 results
                                      in a "CC" value of 19.  Otherwise, a
                                      "CC" value of 20 is used.
                              MM      The month of the year, from 1 to 12.
                              DD      The day of the month, from 1 to 31.
                              hh      The hour of the day, from 0 to 23.
                              mm      The minute of the hour, from 0 to 59.
                              SS      The second of the minute, from 0 to 61.

                        If the "CC" and "YY" letter pairs are not specified,
                        the values default to the current year.  If the "SS"
                        letter pair is not specified, the value defaults to 0.

     The -d, -r, and -t options are mutually exclusive.  If more than one of
     these options is present, the last one is used.

EXIT STATUS
     The touch utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

COMPATIBILITY
     The obsolescent form of touch, where a time format is specified as the
     first argument, is supported.  When no -d, -r, or -t option is specified,
     there are at least two arguments, and the first argument is a string of
     digits either eight or ten characters in length, the first argument is
     interpreted as a time specification of the form "MMDDhhmm[YY]".

     The "MM", "DD", "hh" and "mm" letter pairs are treated as their
     counterparts specified to the -t option.  If the "YY" letter pair is in
     the range 69 to 99, the year is set to 1969 to 1999, otherwise, the year
     is set in the 21st century.

SEE ALSO
     utimes(2)

STANDARDS
     The touch utility is expected to be a superset of the IEEE Std 1003.2
     ("POSIX.2") specification.

HISTORY
     A touch utility appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

BUGS
     A symbolic link can't be a reference file of access and/or modification
     time.

BSD                            October 22, 2012                            BSD

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXIT STATUS | COMPATIBILITY | SEE ALSO | STANDARDS | HISTORY | BUGS