TOUCH(1)                                                  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 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
       Report touch bugs to bug-coreutilsATgnu.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 redistribute 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                                         November 2010                                                 TOUCH(1)