← linux commands
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touch command
The touch command is used to create an empty file, or change the access timestamp of a file.
Syntax: touch [options] filename
Example:
touch main.js
Options:
-a
To change the access time to current time
To demonstrate this flag, we will do following steps:
- create a new file
- check its access time (atime)
- after a minute, change its access time using touch command
- check its access time again
touch note.txt
ls -lu
touch -a note.txt
ls -lu
-m
To change the modify time to current time
Example:
touch main.js
stat main.js
touch -m main.js
stat main.js
-t
Change the access and modification times to the specified time instead of the current time of day
The timestamp should be in [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss] format, where:
- CC: First two digit of the year (the century) [OPTIONAL]
- YY: Last two digits of the year [OPTIONAL]
- MM: Month (two-digit numeric month)
- DD: Day (two-digit numeric day)
- hh: Hour
- mm: Minutes
- ss: Seconds [OPTIONAL]
Example:
touch note.txt
stat note.txt
touch -t 192009191819 note.txt
stat note.txt
Creating multiple files at once
# creating files from a set
touch file{4,5,6}.js
# creating files from a loop
touch file{1..3}.js
