xref: /netbsd-src/usr.bin/touch/touch.1 (revision 6929ad87a5c37179228b21785018bbb66fe06b56)
1.\"	$NetBSD: touch.1,v 1.6 1994/12/07 09:19:48 jtc Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
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6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
7.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
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37.\"     @(#)touch.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93
38.\"
39.Dd December 7, 1994
40.Dt TOUCH 1
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm touch
44.Nd change file access and modification times
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Nm touch
47.Op Fl acfm
48.Op Fl r Ar file
49.Op Fl t Ar [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
50.Ar file ...
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Nm touch
54utility sets the modification and access times of files to the
55current time of day.
56If the file doesn't exist, it is created with default permissions.
57.Pp
58The following options are available:
59.Bl -tag -width Ds
60.It Fl a
61Change the access time of the file.
62The modification time of the file is not changed unless the
63.Fl m
64flag is also specified.
65.It Fl c
66Do not create the file if it does not exist.
67The
68.Nm touch
69utility does not treat this as an error.
70No error messages are displayed and the exit value is not affected.
71.It Fl f
72Attempt to force the update, even if the file permissions do not
73currently permit it.
74.It Fl m
75Change the modification time of the file.
76The access time of the file is not changed unless the
77.Fl a
78flag is also specified.
79.It Fl r
80Use the access and modifications times from the specified file
81instead of the current time of day.
82.It Fl t
83Change the access and modification times to the specified time.
84The argument should be in the form
85.Dq [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
86where each pair of letters represents the following:
87.Pp
88.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
89.It Ar CC
90The first two digits of the year (the century).
91.It Ar YY
92The second two digits of the year.
93If
94.Dq YY
95is specified, but
96.Dq CC
97is not, a value for
98.Dq YY
99between 69 and 99 results in a
100.Dq YY
101value of 19.
102Otherwise, a
103.Dq YY
104value of 20 is used.
105.It Ar MM
106The month of the year, from 1 to 12.
107.It Ar DD
108the day of the month, from 1 to 31.
109.It Ar hh
110The hour of the day, from 0 to 23.
111.It Ar mm
112The minute of the hour, from 0 to 59.
113.It Ar SS
114The second of the minute, from 0 to 61.
115.El
116.Pp
117If the
118.Dq CC
119and
120.Dq YY
121letter pairs are not specified, the values default to the current
122year.
123If the
124.Dq SS
125letter pair is not specified, the value defaults to 0.
126.El
127.Pp
128The
129.Nm touch
130utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
131.Sh SEE ALSO
132.Xr utimes 2
133.Sh COMPATIBILITY
134The obsolescent form of
135.Nm touch ,
136where a time format is specified as the first argument, is supported.
137When no
138.Fl r
139or
140.Fl t
141option is specified, there are at least two arguments, and the first
142argument is a string of digits either eight or ten characters in length,
143the first argument is interpreted as a time specification of the form
144.Dq MMDDhhmm[YY] .
145.Pp
146The
147.Dq MM ,
148.Dq DD ,
149.Dq hh
150and
151.Dq mm
152letter pairs are treated as their counterparts specified to the
153.Fl t
154option.
155If the
156.Dq YY
157letter pair is in the range 69 to 99, the year is set to 1969 to 1999,
158otherwise, the year is set in the 21st century.
159.Sh HISTORY
160A
161.Nm touch
162utility appeared in
163.At v7 .
164.Sh STANDARDS
165The
166.Nm touch
167utility is expected to be a superset of the
168.St -p1003.2
169specification.
170