by CharlyBr | Command line in ,

The unix touch command

This post is a quick ref on the linux touch command. All the examples have been tested on Linux.

This command is used to update the access and modification times of files.

  • touch’s syntax
touch [option] file_name(s)
touch file1 file2 file3
  • Here some examples:
# touch /tmp/file
# ls -l /tmp/file
rw-r--r-- 1 charlybr charlybr 0 Sep 10 16:13 /tmp/file
  • Update access and modification time to current time:
# ls -l /tmp/file
rw-r--r-- 1 charlybr charlybr 0 Sep 10 16:13 /tmp/file
# touch /tmp/file
# ls -l /tmp/file
rw-r--r-- 1 charlybr charlybr 0 Sep 10 16:14 /tmp/file
  • Update access and modification time to a specified timestamp ([[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss] format):
# touch -t 09091842 /tmp/file
# ls -l /tmp/file
-rw-r--r-- 1 charlybr charlybr 0 Sep  9 18:42 /tmp/file
  • Update access and modification time to a specified date
# touch -d '9 Sep' /tmp/file
# ls -l /tmp/file
-rw-r--r-- 1 charlybr charlybr 0 Sep  9 00:00 /tmp/file
# touch -d '9 Sep 2008 13:14' /tmp/file
# ls -l /tmp/file
-rw-r--r-- 1 charlybr charlybr 0 Sep  9 13:14 /tmp/file

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