xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/touch/touch.1 (revision dbb9d8f826d909bc6076d1047ddba753c29761b0)
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35.\"     @(#)touch.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
36.\" $FreeBSD$
37.\"
38.Dd April 28, 1995
39.Dt TOUCH 1
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm touch
43.Nd change file access and modification times
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Nm
46.Op Fl acfm
47.Op Fl r Ar file
48.Op Fl t Ar [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
49.Ar
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Nm
53utility sets the modification and access 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 Ds
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 f
71Attempt to force the update, even if the file permissions do not
72currently permit it.
73.It Fl m
74Change the modification time of the file.
75The access time of the file is not changed unless the
76.Fl a
77flag is also specified.
78.It Fl r
79Use the access and modifications times from the specified file
80instead of the current time of day.
81.It Fl t
82Change the access and modification times to the specified time.
83The argument should be in the form
84.Dq [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
85where each pair of letters represents the following:
86.Pp
87.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
88.It Ar CC
89The first two digits of the year (the century).
90.It Ar YY
91The second two digits of the year.
92If
93.Dq YY
94is specified, but
95.Dq CC
96is not, a value for
97.Dq YY
98between 69 and 99 results in a
99.Dq CC
100value of 19.
101Otherwise, a
102.Dq CC
103value of 20 is used.
104.It Ar MM
105The month of the year, from 1 to 12.
106.It Ar DD
107the day of the month, from 1 to 31.
108.It Ar hh
109The hour of the day, from 0 to 23.
110.It Ar mm
111The minute of the hour, from 0 to 59.
112.It Ar SS
113The second of the minute, from 0 to 61.
114.El
115.Pp
116If the
117.Dq CC
118and
119.Dq YY
120letter pairs are not specified, the values default to the current
121year.
122If the
123.Dq SS
124letter pair is not specified, the value defaults to 0.
125.El
126.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
127The
128.Nm
129utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
130.Sh SEE ALSO
131.Xr utimes 2
132.Sh COMPATIBILITY
133The obsolescent form of
134.Nm touch ,
135where a time format is specified as the first argument, is supported.
136When no
137.Fl r
138or
139.Fl t
140option is specified, there are at least two arguments, and the first
141argument is a string of digits either eight or ten characters in length,
142the first argument is interpreted as a time specification of the form
143.Dq MMDDhhmm[YY] .
144.Pp
145The
146.Dq MM ,
147.Dq DD ,
148.Dq hh
149and
150.Dq mm
151letter pairs are treated as their counterparts specified to the
152.Fl t
153option.
154If the
155.Dq YY
156letter pair is in the range 39 to 99, the year is set to 1939 to 1999,
157otherwise, the year is set in the 21st century.
158.Sh HISTORY
159A
160.Nm
161utility appeared in
162.At v7 .
163.Sh STANDARDS
164The
165.Nm
166utility is expected to be a superset of the
167.St -p1003.2
168specification.
169