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Command: touch | Section: 1 | Source: OpenBSD | File: touch.1
TOUCH(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual TOUCH(1)
NAME
touch - change file access and modification times
SYNOPSIS
touch [-acm] [-d ccyy-mm-ddTHH:MM:SS[.frac][Z]] [-r file]
[-t [[cc]yy]mmddHHMM[.SS]] file ...
DESCRIPTION
The touch utility sets the modification and access times of files to the
current time of day. If the file doesn't exist, it is created with
default permissions.
The options are as follows:
-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 ccyy-mm-ddTHH:MM:SS[.frac][Z]
Change the access and modification times to the specified time,
in a format compliant with the ISO 8601 standard. The parts of
the argument represent the following:
ccyy Year.
mm Month: a number from 1 to 12.
dd Day: a number from 1 to 31.
T Either the capital letter `T' or a single space. If
a space is used, the argument should be quoted to
prevent the shell from splitting it into multiple
words.
HH Hour: a number from 0 to 23.
MM Minute: a number from 0 to 59.
SS Second: a number from 0 to 60 (permitting a leap
second).
frac The decimal fraction of the second, either a period
or comma, followed by one or more decimal digits.
Z The timezone specifier: a capital letter `Z'
indicating that the time is in UTC. If not
specified, the time is in the local timezone.
-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
Use the access and modification times from the specified file
instead of the current time of day.
-t [[cc]yy]mmddHHMM[.SS]
Change the access and modification times to the specified time,
where the parts of the argument represent the following:
ccyy 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 Month: a number from 1 to 12.
dd Day: a number from 1 to 31.
HH Hour: a number from 0 to 23.
MM Minute: a number from 0 to 59.
SS Second: a number from 0 to 60 (permitting a leap
second), preceded by a period. The default is 0.
EXIT STATUS
The touch utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
date(1)
STANDARDS
The touch utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 ("POSIX.1")
specification.
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]".
HISTORY
A touch utility appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.
FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8 September 25, 2015 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8