xref: /netbsd-src/usr.bin/touch/touch.1 (revision 6a493d6bc668897c91594964a732d38505b70cbb)
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33.\"     @(#)touch.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
34.\"
35.Dd October 22, 2012
36.Dt TOUCH 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm touch
40.Nd change file access and modification times
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl acfhm
44.Op Fl d Ar human-datetime
45.Op Fl Fl date Ar human-datetime
46.Op Fl r Ar file
47.Op Fl Fl reference Ar file
48.Op Fl t Ar datetime
49.Ar file ...
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Nm
53utility changes the access and modification times of files to the
54current time of day.
55If the file doesn't exist, it is created with default permissions.
56.Pp
57The following options are available:
58.Bl -tag -width "-d human-datetime"
59.It Fl a
60Change the access time of the file.
61The modification time of the file is not changed unless the
62.Fl m
63flag is also specified.
64.It Fl c
65Do not create the file if it does not exist.
66The
67.Nm
68utility does not treat this as an error.
69No error messages are displayed and the exit value is not affected.
70.It Fl d Ar human-datetime
71.It Fl Fl date Ar human-datetime
72Parse
73.Ar human-datetime
74using the human datetime parser
75.Xr parsedate 3 .
76.It Fl f
77This flag has no effect; it is accepted for compatibility reasons.
78.It Fl h
79If
80.Ar file
81is a symbolic link, access and/or modification time of the link is changed.
82This option implies
83.Fl c .
84.It Fl m
85Change the modification time of the file.
86The access time of the file is not changed unless the
87.Fl a
88flag is also specified.
89.It Fl r Ar file
90.It Fl Fl reference Ar file
91Use the access and modifications times from
92.Ar file
93instead of the current time of day.
94.It Fl t Ar datetime
95Change the access and modification times to the specified time.
96The argument
97.Ar datetime
98should be in the form
99.Dq [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
100where each pair of letters represents the following:
101.Pp
102.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
103.It Ar CC
104The first two digits of the year (the century).
105.It Ar YY
106The second two digits of the year.
107If
108.Dq YY
109is specified, but
110.Dq CC
111is not, a value for
112.Dq YY
113between 69 and 99 results in a
114.Dq CC
115value of 19.
116Otherwise, a
117.Dq CC
118value of 20 is used.
119.It Ar MM
120The month of the year, from 1 to 12.
121.It Ar DD
122The day of the month, from 1 to 31.
123.It Ar hh
124The hour of the day, from 0 to 23.
125.It Ar mm
126The minute of the hour, from 0 to 59.
127.It Ar SS
128The second of the minute, from 0 to 61.
129.El
130.Pp
131If the
132.Dq CC
133and
134.Dq YY
135letter pairs are not specified, the values default to the current
136year.
137If the
138.Dq SS
139letter pair is not specified, the value defaults to 0.
140.El
141.Pp
142The
143.Fl d ,
144.Fl r ,
145and
146.Fl t
147options are mutually exclusive.
148If more than one of these options is present, the last one is used.
149.Sh EXIT STATUS
150.Ex -std
151.Sh COMPATIBILITY
152The obsolescent form of
153.Nm ,
154where a time format is specified as the first argument, is supported.
155When no
156.Fl d ,
157.Fl r ,
158or
159.Fl t
160option is specified, there are at least two arguments, and the first
161argument is a string of digits either eight or ten characters in length,
162the first argument is interpreted as a time specification of the form
163.Dq MMDDhhmm[YY] .
164.Pp
165The
166.Dq MM ,
167.Dq DD ,
168.Dq hh
169and
170.Dq mm
171letter pairs are treated as their counterparts specified to the
172.Fl t
173option.
174If the
175.Dq YY
176letter pair is in the range 69 to 99, the year is set to 1969 to 1999,
177otherwise, the year is set in the 21st century.
178.Sh SEE ALSO
179.Xr utimes 2
180.Sh STANDARDS
181The
182.Nm
183utility is expected to be a superset of the
184.St -p1003.2
185specification.
186.Sh HISTORY
187A
188.Nm
189utility appeared in
190.At v7 .
191.Sh BUGS
192A symbolic link can't be a reference file of access and/or modification time.
193