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 cur‐
       rent 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 standard 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  for‐
       mats.

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  MacKen‐
       zie, and Randy Smith.

REPORTING BUGS
       GNU  coreutils  online  help:  <https://www.gnu.org/software/core‐
       utils/>
       Report   any   translation   bugs   to    <https://translationpro‐
       ject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright  ©  2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+:
       GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://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
       Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/touch>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) touch invocation'

GNU coreutils 8.32              April 2020                       TOUCH(1)