xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/touch/touch.1 (revision 4c8945a06b01a5c8122cdeb402af36bb46a06acc)
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31.\"     @(#)touch.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd April 28, 1995
35.Dt TOUCH 1
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm touch
39.Nd change file access and modification times
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm
42.Op Fl A Ar [-][[hh]mm]SS
43.Op Fl acfhm
44.Op Fl r Ar file
45.Op Fl t Ar [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
46.Ar
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Nm
50utility sets the modification and access times of files.
51If any file does not exist, it is created with default permissions.
52.Pp
53By default,
54.Nm
55changes both modification and access times.  The
56.Fl a
57and
58.Fl m
59flags may be used to select the access time or the modification time
60individually.
61Selecting both is equivalent to the default.
62By default, the timestamps are set to the current time.
63The
64.Fl t
65flag explicitly specifies a different time, and the
66.Fl r
67flag specifies to set the times those of the specified file.
68The
69.Fl A
70flag adjusts the values by a specified amount.
71.Pp
72The following options are available:
73.Bl -tag -width Ds
74.It Fl A
75Adjust the access and modification time stamps for the file by the
76specified value.
77This flag is intended for use in modifying files with incorrectly set
78time stamps.
79.Pp
80The argument is of the form
81.Dq [-][[hh]mm]SS
82where each pair of letters represents the following:
83.Pp
84.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
85.It Ar -
86Make the adjustment negative: the new time stamp is set to be before
87the old one.
88.It Ar hh
89The number of hours, from 00 to 99.
90.It Ar mm
91The number of minutes, from 00 to 59.
92.It Ar SS
93The number of seconds, from 00 to 59.
94.El
95.Pp
96The
97.Fl A
98flag implies the
99.Fl c
100flag: if any file specified does not exist, it will be silently ignored.
101.It Fl a
102Change the access time of the file.
103The modification time of the file is not changed unless the
104.Fl m
105flag is also specified.
106.It Fl c
107Do not create the file if it does not exist.
108The
109.Nm
110utility does not treat this as an error.
111No error messages are displayed and the exit value is not affected.
112.It Fl f
113Attempt to force the update, even if the file permissions do not
114currently permit it.
115.It Fl h
116If the file is a symbolic link, change the times of the link
117itself rather than the file that the link points to.
118Note that
119.Fl h
120implies
121.Fl c
122and thus will not create any new files.
123.It Fl m
124Change the modification time of the file.
125The access time of the file is not changed unless the
126.Fl a
127flag is also specified.
128.It Fl r
129Use the access and modifications times from the specified file
130instead of the current time of day.
131.It Fl t
132Change the access and modification times to the specified time instead
133of the current time of day.
134The argument is of the form
135.Dq [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
136where each pair of letters represents the following:
137.Pp
138.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
139.It Ar CC
140The first two digits of the year (the century).
141.It Ar YY
142The second two digits of the year.
143If
144.Dq YY
145is specified, but
146.Dq CC
147is not, a value for
148.Dq YY
149between 69 and 99 results in a
150.Dq CC
151value of 19.
152Otherwise, a
153.Dq CC
154value of 20 is used.
155.It Ar MM
156The month of the year, from 01 to 12.
157.It Ar DD
158the day of the month, from 01 to 31.
159.It Ar hh
160The hour of the day, from 00 to 23.
161.It Ar mm
162The minute of the hour, from 00 to 59.
163.It Ar SS
164The second of the minute, from 00 to 61.
165.El
166.Pp
167If the
168.Dq CC
169and
170.Dq YY
171letter pairs are not specified, the values default to the current
172year.
173If the
174.Dq SS
175letter pair is not specified, the value defaults to 0.
176.El
177.Sh EXIT STATUS
178.Ex -std
179.Sh COMPATIBILITY
180The obsolescent form of
181.Nm ,
182where a time format is specified as the first argument, is supported.
183When no
184.Fl r
185or
186.Fl t
187option is specified, there are at least two arguments, and the first
188argument is a string of digits either eight or ten characters in length,
189the first argument is interpreted as a time specification of the form
190.Dq MMDDhhmm[YY] .
191.Pp
192The
193.Dq MM ,
194.Dq DD ,
195.Dq hh
196and
197.Dq mm
198letter pairs are treated as their counterparts specified to the
199.Fl t
200option.
201If the
202.Dq YY
203letter pair is in the range 39 to 99, the year is set to 1939 to 1999,
204otherwise, the year is set in the 21st century.
205.Sh SEE ALSO
206.Xr utimes 2
207.Sh STANDARDS
208The
209.Nm
210utility is expected to be a superset of the
211.St -p1003.2
212specification.
213.Sh HISTORY
214A
215.Nm
216utility appeared in
217.At v7 .
218