Lesson 10: touch Command
In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the touch command to create, change, and modify the timestamps of a file in Linux.
The touch command is a standard program for Unix/Linux operating systems that is used to create, change, and modify the timestamps of a file.
Let's now discuss some options offered by the touch command, and then we will explore different touch command examples.
touch Command Syntax
touch [OPTIONS] FILE
touch Command Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-a |
Change the access time only |
-c |
If the file does not exist, do not create it |
-d |
Update the access and modification times |
-m |
Change the modification time only |
-r |
Use the access and modification times of the file |
-t |
Creates a file using a specified time |
1. Create an Empty File
The following touch command creates an empty new file called sheena.
# touch sheena
# ls -l sheena
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 5 10:20 sheena
2. Create Multiple Files
By using the touch command, you can also create more than one single file. For example, the following command will create 3 files named sheena, meena, and leena.
# touch sheena meena leena
# ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 5 10:20 leena
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 5 10:20 meena
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 5 10:20 sheena
3. Change File Access and Modification Time
To change or update the last access and modification times of a file called leena, use the -a option as follows.
The following command sets the current time and date in a file. If the leena file does not exist, it will create a new empty file with that name.
# touch -a leena
# ls -l leena
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 5 11:45 leena
The most popular Linux commands, such as the find command and ls command use timestamps for listing and finding files.