xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/touch/touch.1 (revision e5b786625f7f82a1fa91e41823332459ea5550f9)
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31.\"     @(#)touch.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
32.\"
33.Dd June 1, 2018
34.Dt TOUCH 1
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm touch
38.Nd change file access and modification times
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.Nm
41.Op Fl A Ar [-][[hh]mm]SS
42.Op Fl achm
43.Op Fl r Ar file
44.Op Fl t Ar [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
45.Op Fl d Ar YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:SS[.frac][tz]
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.
56The
57.Fl a
58and
59.Fl m
60flags may be used to select the access time or the modification time
61individually.
62Selecting both is equivalent to the default.
63By default, the timestamps are set to the current time.
64The
65.Fl d
66and
67.Fl t
68flags explicitly specify a different time, and the
69.Fl r
70flag specifies to set the times those of the specified file.
71The
72.Fl A
73flag adjusts the values by a specified amount.
74.Pp
75The following options are available:
76.Bl -tag -width Ds
77.It Fl A
78Adjust the access and modification time stamps for the file by the
79specified value.
80This flag is intended for use in modifying files with incorrectly set
81time stamps.
82.Pp
83The argument is of the form
84.Dq [-][[hh]mm]SS
85where each pair of letters represents the following:
86.Pp
87.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
88.It Ar -
89Make the adjustment negative: the new time stamp is set to be before
90the old one.
91.It Ar hh
92The number of hours, from 00 to 99.
93.It Ar mm
94The number of minutes, from 00 to 59.
95.It Ar SS
96The number of seconds, from 00 to 59.
97.El
98.Pp
99The
100.Fl A
101flag implies the
102.Fl c
103flag: if any file specified does not exist, it will be silently ignored.
104.It Fl a
105Change the access time of the file.
106The modification time of the file is not changed unless the
107.Fl m
108flag is also specified.
109.It Fl c
110Do not create the file if it does not exist.
111The
112.Nm
113utility does not treat this as an error.
114No error messages are displayed and the exit value is not affected.
115.It Fl d
116Change the access and modification times to the specified date time instead
117of the current time of day.
118The argument is of the form
119.Dq YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:SS[.frac][tz]
120where the letters represent the following:
121.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
122.It Ar YYYY
123At least four decimal digits representing the year.
124.It Ar MM , Ar DD , Ar hh , Ar mm , Ar SS
125As with
126.Fl t
127time.
128.It Ar T
129The letter
130.Li T
131or a space is the time designator.
132.It Ar .frac
133An optional fraction, consisting of a period or a comma followed by one or
134more digits.
135The number of significant digits depends on the kernel configuration and the
136filesystem, and may be zero.
137.It Ar tz
138An optional letter
139.Li Z
140indicating the time is in
141.Tn UTC .
142Otherwise, the time is assumed to be in local time.
143Local time is affected by the value of the
144.Ev TZ
145environment variable.
146.El
147.It Fl h
148If the file is a symbolic link, change the times of the link
149itself rather than the file that the link points to.
150Note that
151.Fl h
152implies
153.Fl c
154and thus will not create any new files.
155.It Fl m
156Change the modification time of the file.
157The access time of the file is not changed unless the
158.Fl a
159flag is also specified.
160.It Fl r
161Use the access and modifications times from the specified file
162instead of the current time of day.
163.It Fl t
164Change the access and modification times to the specified time instead
165of the current time of day.
166The argument is of the form
167.Dq [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
168where each pair of letters represents the following:
169.Pp
170.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
171.It Ar CC
172The first two digits of the year (the century).
173.It Ar YY
174The second two digits of the year.
175If
176.Dq YY
177is specified, but
178.Dq CC
179is not, a value for
180.Dq YY
181between 69 and 99 results in a
182.Dq CC
183value of 19.
184Otherwise, a
185.Dq CC
186value of 20 is used.
187.It Ar MM
188The month of the year, from 01 to 12.
189.It Ar DD
190the day of the month, from 01 to 31.
191.It Ar hh
192The hour of the day, from 00 to 23.
193.It Ar mm
194The minute of the hour, from 00 to 59.
195.It Ar SS
196The second of the minute, from 00 to 60.
197.El
198.Pp
199If the
200.Dq CC
201and
202.Dq YY
203letter pairs are not specified, the values default to the current
204year.
205If the
206.Dq SS
207letter pair is not specified, the value defaults to 0.
208.El
209.Sh EXIT STATUS
210.Ex -std
211.Sh COMPATIBILITY
212The obsolescent form of
213.Nm ,
214where a time format is specified as the first argument, is supported.
215When no
216.Fl r
217or
218.Fl t
219option is specified, there are at least two arguments, and the first
220argument is a string of digits either eight or ten characters in length,
221the first argument is interpreted as a time specification of the form
222.Dq MMDDhhmm[YY] .
223.Pp
224The
225.Dq MM ,
226.Dq DD ,
227.Dq hh
228and
229.Dq mm
230letter pairs are treated as their counterparts specified to the
231.Fl t
232option.
233If the
234.Dq YY
235letter pair is in the range 39 to 99, the year is set to 1939 to 1999,
236otherwise, the year is set in the 21st century.
237.Sh SEE ALSO
238.Xr utimensat 2
239.Sh STANDARDS
240The
241.Nm
242utility is expected to be a superset of the
243.St -p1003.2
244specification.
245.Sh HISTORY
246A
247.Nm
248utility appeared in
249.At v7 .
250