Use touch command to Create a File, Change a File, and Modify Timestamps
touch - In Linux/Unix operating system touch command is used to create, change and modify timestamps of a file.
The general syntax of touch command.
touch [OPTION]... FILE...
Brief description of options available with the touch command.
| Options |
Description |
-a |
change only the access time |
-c, --no-create |
do not create any file |
-d, --date=STRING |
parse STRING and use it instead of the 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 the file's times instead of the 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. |
Example: Create a file using the touch command.
In this example, a new file is created without content using the touch command touch <file name>
Example: Create multiple files at a time using the touch command.
In this example, using the touch command you can create multiple files at a time touch <first file> <second file> <third file> ...
Example: change the last access time of a file.
In this example, Using -a (access time) option you can modify the last access time of a file. Here the date command is used to display the current date and time. you can see that after using -a option with the touch command the last access time is changed.
Example: Use of -c option and check file is created or not. This option avoids creating a new file.
In this example, newfile.txt is not available in hope directory and after using -c option with the touch command you can see that newfile.txt is not created.
Example: Use another file time instead of the current time.
In this example, you can see the time of the available file and details using the ll command. After using touch --reference=newfile.txt main.c main.c file charged to the newfile.txt file instead of the current time.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we covered how to create, change, and modify timestamps of a file in the Linux operating system using touch command with available options and suitable examples.
