xref: /original-bsd/usr.bin/touch/touch.1 (revision 3f14a87d)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1991 Regents of the University of California.
2.\" 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.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
8.\"
9.\"     @(#)touch.1	6.5 (Berkeley) 03/06/93
10.\"
11.Dd
12.Dt TOUCH 1
13.Os
14.Sh NAME
15.Nm touch
16.Nd change file access and modification times
17.Sh SYNOPSIS
18.Nm touch
19.Op Fl acfm
20.Op Fl r Ar file
21.Op Fl t [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
22.Ar file ...
23.Sh DESCRIPTION
24The
25.Nm touch
26utility sets the modification and access times of files to the
27current time of day.
28If the file doesn't exist, it is created with default permissions.
29.Pp
30The following options are available:
31.Bl -tag -width Ds
32.It Fl a
33Change the access time of the file.
34The modification time of the file is not changed unless the
35.Fl m
36flag is also specified.
37.It Fl c
38Do not create the file if it does not exist.
39The
40.Nm touch
41utility does not treat this as an error.
42No error messages are displayed and the exit value is not affected.
43.It Fl f
44Attempt to force the update, even if the file permissions do not
45currently permit it.
46.It Fl m
47Change the modification time of the file.
48The access time of the file is not changed unless the
49.Fl a
50flag is also specified.
51.It Fl r
52Use the access and modifications times from the specified file
53instead of the current time of day.
54.It Fl t
55Change the access and modification times to the specified time.
56The argument should be in the form
57.Dq [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
58where each pair of letters represents the following:
59.Pp
60.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
61.It Ar CC
62The first two digits of the year (the century).
63.It Ar YY
64The second two digits of the year.
65If
66.Dq YY
67is specified, but
68.Dq CC
69is not, a value for
70.Dq YY
71between 69 and 99 results in a
72.Dq YY
73value of 19.
74Otherwise, a
75.Dq YY
76value of 20 is used.
77.It Ar MM
78The month of the year, from 1 to 12.
79.It Ar DD
80the day of the month, from 1 to 31.
81.It Ar hh
82The hour of the day, from 0 to 23.
83.It Ar mm
84The minute of the hour, from 0 to 59.
85.It Ar SS
86The second of the minute, from 0 to 61.
87.El
88.Pp
89If the
90.Dq CC
91and
92.Dq YY
93letter pairs are not specified, the values default to the current
94year.
95If the
96.Dq SS
97letter pair is not specified, the value defaults to 0.
98.El
99.Pp
100The
101.Nm touch
102utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
103.Sh SEE ALSO
104.Xr utimes 2
105.Sh COMPATIBILITY
106The obsolescent form of
107.Nm touch ,
108where a time format is specified as the first argument, is supported.
109When no
110.Fl r
111or
112.Fl t
113option is specified, there are at least two arguments, and the first
114argument is a string of digits either eight or ten characters in length,
115the first argument is interprested as a time specification of the form
116.Dq MMDDhhmm[YY] .
117.Pp
118The
119.Dq MM ,
120.Dq DD ,
121.Dq hh
122and
123.Dq mm
124letter pairs are treated as their counterparts specified to the
125.Fl t
126option.
127If the
128.Dq YY
129letter pair is in the range 69 to 99, the year is set to 1969 to 1999,
130otherwise, the year is set in the 21st century.
131.Sh HISTORY
132A
133.Nm touch
134command appeared in
135.At v7 .
136.Sh STANDARDS
137The
138.Nm touch
139function is expected to be a superset of the
140.St -p1003.2
141specification.
142