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 standard 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 timestamps 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
          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 documentation.

AUTHOR

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

REPORTING BUGS

   GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
   Report touch translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

   Copyright  2016 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 redistribute it.
   There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

   Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/touch>
   or available locally via: info '(coreutils) touch invocation'

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Free and Open Source Software