xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/touch/touch.1 (revision 2ad872c5794e4c26fdf6ed219ad3f09ca0d5304a)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
6.\"
7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
9.\" are met:
10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
16.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
17.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
18.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
19.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
20.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
21.\"    without specific prior written permission.
22.\"
23.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
24.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
25.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
26.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
27.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
28.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
29.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
30.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
31.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
32.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
33.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
34.\"
35.\"     @(#)touch.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
36.\"
37.Dd April 28, 1995
38.Dt TOUCH 1
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm touch
42.Nd change file access and modification times
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Nm
45.Op Fl acfm
46.Op Fl r Ar file
47.Op Fl t Ar [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
48.Ar
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50The
51.Nm
52utility sets the modification and access times of files to the
53current time of day.
54If the file doesn't exist, it is created with default permissions.
55.Pp
56The following options are available:
57.Bl -tag -width Ds
58.It Fl a
59Change the access time of the file.
60The modification time of the file is not changed unless the
61.Fl m
62flag is also specified.
63.It Fl c
64Do not create the file if it does not exist.
65The
66.Nm
67utility does not treat this as an error.
68No error messages are displayed and the exit value is not affected.
69.It Fl f
70Attempt to force the update, even if the file permissions do not
71currently permit it.
72.It Fl m
73Change the modification time of the file.
74The access time of the file is not changed unless the
75.Fl a
76flag is also specified.
77.It Fl r
78Use the access and modifications times from the specified file
79instead of the current time of day.
80.It Fl t
81Change the access and modification times to the specified time.
82The argument should be in the form
83.Dq [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
84where each pair of letters represents the following:
85.Pp
86.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
87.It Ar CC
88The first two digits of the year (the century).
89.It Ar YY
90The second two digits of the year.
91If
92.Dq YY
93is specified, but
94.Dq CC
95is not, a value for
96.Dq YY
97between 69 and 99 results in a
98.Dq CC
99value of 19.
100Otherwise, a
101.Dq CC
102value of 20 is used.
103.It Ar MM
104The month of the year, from 1 to 12.
105.It Ar DD
106the day of the month, from 1 to 31.
107.It Ar hh
108The hour of the day, from 0 to 23.
109.It Ar mm
110The minute of the hour, from 0 to 59.
111.It Ar SS
112The second of the minute, from 0 to 61.
113.El
114.Pp
115If the
116.Dq CC
117and
118.Dq YY
119letter pairs are not specified, the values default to the current
120year.
121If the
122.Dq SS
123letter pair is not specified, the value defaults to 0.
124.El
125.Pp
126The
127.Nm
128utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
129.Sh SEE ALSO
130.Xr utimes 2
131.Sh COMPATIBILITY
132The obsolescent form of
133.Nm touch ,
134where a time format is specified as the first argument, is supported.
135When no
136.Fl r
137or
138.Fl t
139option is specified, there are at least two arguments, and the first
140argument is a string of digits either eight or ten characters in length,
141the first argument is interpreted as a time specification of the form
142.Dq MMDDhhmm[YY] .
143.Pp
144The
145.Dq MM ,
146.Dq DD ,
147.Dq hh
148and
149.Dq mm
150letter pairs are treated as their counterparts specified to the
151.Fl t
152option.
153If the
154.Dq YY
155letter pair is in the range 39 to 99, the year is set to 1939 to 1999,
156otherwise, the year is set in the 21st century.
157.Sh HISTORY
158A
159.Nm
160utility appeared in
161.At v7 .
162.Sh STANDARDS
163The
164.Nm
165utility is expected to be a superset of the
166.St -p1003.2
167specification.
168