NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     touch - change file access and modification times

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     touch [-acfm]  [-r  file]  [-t  [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]]  file
[...]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     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.

     -f       Attempt  to force the update, even if the file permissions do not
             currently permit it.

     -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      Use the access and modification times from the specified file instead
 of the current time of day.

     -t       Change  the  access  and  modification times to the
specified time.
             The argument 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  touch  utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     utimes(2)

STANDARDS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The obsolescent form of touch, where a time format is specified as the
     first  argument,  is  supported.  When no -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 from 1969 to 1999; otherwise, the
     year is set in the 21st century.

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

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

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

OpenBSD      3.6                          April      28,     1995