The touch command is one of the ways to create empty files. One can easily update the modification and access time of the files by using touch command.
Syntax:
touch <filename> |
Example: touch myfile1
codes@w3schools:~$ ls cretecler Disk1 Downloads Music Pictures Templates Desktop Documents example.desktop office Public Videos codes@w3schools:~$ touch myfile1 codes@w3schools:~$ touch myfile2 codes@w3schools:~$ ls cretecler Disk1 Downloads Music myfile2 Pictures Templates Desktop Documents example.desktop myfile1 office Public Videos codes@w3schools:~$ |
In the above example, we are creating two files named ‘myfile1’ and ‘myfile2’ using touch command. In order to create multiple files, you just need to type all the file names with a single touch command and press enter key. Let’s say you want to create ‘myfile1’ and ‘myfile2’ simultaneously, then you will use the following command:
touch myfile1 myfile2 |
touch Options
| Option | Function |
| touch -a | This command is used to change file access and modification time. |
| touch -m | To modify the time only of a file. |
| touch -r | It is used to update the time of one file with reference to the other file. |
| touch -t | This command is used to create a file by specifying the time. |
| touch -c | This command doesn’t create an empty file. |
Linux touch -a command
touch -a command is used to change the access time of a file. By default, it will use the current time of the system.
Syntax:
touch -a <filename> |
Example: touch -a usr
In order to see the access and change time of your file, you will need to use stat command.
codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ stat usr File: 'usr' Size: 4096 Block: 8 IO Block: 4096 Directory Device: 807h/2055d Inode: 655963 Links: 3 Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: 2016-05-25 11:03:31.579478467 +0530 Modify: 2016-05-11 17:55:13.834427646 +0530 Change: 2016-05-24 10:39:45.873020113 +0530 Birth: - codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ touch -a usr codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ stat usr File: 'usr' Size: 4096 Block: 8 IO Block: 4096 Directory Device: 807h/2055d Inode: 655963 Links: 3 Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: 2016-05-25 16:50:14.663712615 +0530 Modify: 2016-05-11 17:55:13.834427646 +0530 Change: 2016-05-25 16:50:14.663712615 +0530 Birth: - codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ |
As you can see in the above example, we have used ‘stat’ command to check the status of our directory (usr). Now after we pass ‘touch -a usr’ command, you can notice the difference between the access time of directory (usr) from before. It has now set the default time of our system as access time.
Linux touch -m command
If you just want to change the modification time of a file only, then use the touch ‘-m’ option.
Syntax:
touch -m <filename> |
Example: touch -m usr
codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ stat linuxfun.pdf File: 'linuxfun.pdf' Size: 70226363 Blocks: 13720 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 807h/2055d Inode: 658072 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: 2016-05-25 11:07:36.806939775 +0530 Modify: 2016-05-11 18:40:09.000000000 +0530 Change: 2016-05-25 11:07:35.790939820 +0530 Birth: - codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ touch -m linuxfun.pdf codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ stat linuxfun.pdf File: 'linuxfun.pdf' Size: 70226363 Blocks: 13720 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 807h/2055d Inode: 658072 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: 2016-05-25 11:24:49.268540162 +0530 Modify: 2016-05-25 11:24:48.256540203 +0530 Change: 2016-05-25 11:24:48.256540203 +0530 Birth: - codes@w3schools:~/Desktop$ |
Check in the above example carefully as only the modification time has changed.
Linux touch -r option
It is used update time with reference to the other specified command. It can be used in two ways but both work just the same.
In the below given example, we want to change the time-stamp of ‘Demo.txt’ with reference to the other file ‘demo.txt’. You can pass the commond in the following manner:
touch -r demo.txt Demo.txt
or
touch Demo.txt -r demo.txt
First we are going to see the status of both the files before using touch command.
codes@w3schools:~/Downloads$ stat demo.txt File: 'demo.txt' Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 regular empty file Device: 807h/2055d Inode: 658414 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: 2016-05-25 10:45:00.276624267 +0530 Modify: 2016-05-24 10:37:35.265025647 +0530 Change: 2016-05-25 10:44:59.264624225 +0530 Birth: - codes@w3schools:~/Downloads$ codes@w3schools:~/Downloads$ stat Demo.txt File: 'Demo.txt' Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 regular empty file Device: 807h/2055d Inode: 658414 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: 2016-05-25 10:43:52.356621370 +0530 Modify: 2016-05-24 10:37:01.761027070 +0530 Change: 2016-05-24 10:37:22.945026171 +0530 Birth: - codes@w3schools:~/Downloads$ |
As you can see, after using touch -r demo.txt Demo.txt command, time of Demo.txt has been changed with reference to time of file demo.txt
codes@w3schools:~/Downloads$ touch -r demo.txt Demo.txt codes@w3schools:~/Downloads$ codes@w3schools:~/Downloads$ stat Demo.txt File: 'Demo.txt' Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 regular empty file Device: 807h/2055d Inode: 658511 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: 2016-05-25 10:45:00.276624267 +0530 Modify: 2016-05-24 10:37:35.265025647 +0530 Change: 2016-05-25 11:51:51.924471400 +0530 Birth: - codes@w3schools:~/Downloads$ codes@w3schools:~/Downloads$ stat demo.txt File: 'demo.txt' Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 regular empty file Device: 807h/2055d Inode: 658414 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: 2016-05-25 10:45:00.276624267 +0530 Modify: 2016-05-24 10:37:35.265025647 +0530 Change: 2016-05-25 11:44:59.264624225 +0530 Birth: - codes@w3schools:~/Downloads$ |
Linux touch -t command
You can change the access time of a file with this command by determining a specified time to it. It will help you modify the time by specified time instead of the default time of your system.
Format of time will be as follows:
touch -t YYYYMMDDhhmm.ss
In the below example, it displays the status of file 2.png before using the touch command,
codes@w3schools:~/Pictures$ stat 2.png File: '2.png' Size: 108673 Blocks: 216 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 807h/2055d Inode: 660019 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: 2016-05-24 16:00:31.389688464 +0530 Modify: 2016-05-18 11:18:07.936242778 +0530 Change: 2016-05-18 11:18:07.936242778 +0530 Birth: - codes@w3schools:~/Pictures$ Now, the below example displays the time of file 2.png that has been modified by our specified time after using this command. codes@w3schools:~/Pictures$ touch -t 201607052052.37 2.png codes@w3schools:~/Pictures$ codes@w3schools:~/Pictures$ stat 2.png File: '2.png' Size: 108673 Blocks: 216 IO Blocks: 4096 regular file Device: 807h/2055d Inode: 660019 Links: 1 Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--) Uid: (1000/ codes) Gid: (1000/ codes) Access: 2016-05-24 12:19:52.836400179 +0530 Modify: 2016-07-05 20:52:37.000000000 +0530 Change: 2016-05-25 12:19:51.632400232 +0530 Birth: - codes@w3schools:~/Pictures$ |
Linux touch -c command
This option ‘c’ with touch command will not create an empty file if that file doesn’t exist before.
Syntax:
touch -c <filename> |
Example: touch -c movie
codes@w3schools:~$ ls cretecler Disk1 Downloads Music myfile2 Pictures Templates Desktop Documents examples.desktop myfile1 office Public Videos codes@w3schools:~$ codes@w3schools:~$ touch -c movie codes@w3schools:~$ codes@w3schools:~$ ls cretecler Disk1 Downloads Music myfile2 Pictures Templates Desktop Documents examples.desktop myfile1 office Public Videos codes@w3schools:~$ In the above example, we were trying to create file 'movie' but as we used 'c' option, no file has been created. |
