NAME

touch − update access and modification times of a file

SYNOPSIS

touch [ −amc ] [ mmddhhmm[yy] ] files

DESCRIPTION

touch causes the access and modification times of each argument to be updated.  The file name is created if it does not exist.  If no time is specified [see date(1)] the current time is used.  The −a and −m options cause touch to update only the access or modification times respectively (default is −am).  The −c option silently prevents touch from creating the file if it did not previously exist. 

The return code from touch is the number of files for which the times could not be successfully modified (including files that did not exist and were not created). 

SEE ALSO

date(1), utime(2). 

NOTES

Users familiar with the BSD environment will find that the −f option is accepted, but ignored.  The −f option is unnecessary since touch will succeed for all files owned by the user regardless of the permissions on the files. 

  —  Directory and File Management Utilities