| -a | change only the access time |
| -c--no-create | do not create any files |
| -d--date | parse STRING and use it instead of current time |
| -f | (ignored) |
| -h--no-dereference | affect each symbolic link instead of any referenced file (useful only on systems that can change the timestamps of a symlink) |
| -m | change only the modification time |
| -r--reference | use this file's times instead of current time |
| -t | use specified time instead of current time, with a date-time format that differs from -d's |
| --time | specify which time to change: access time (-a): 'access', 'atime', 'use'; modification time (-m): 'modify', 'mtime' |
| --help | display this help and exit |
| --version | output version information and exit |
NAME
touch - change file timestamps
SYNOPSIS
touch [OPTION]... FILE...
DESCRIPTION
Update the access and modification times of each FILE to the current time.
A FILE argument that does not exist is created empty, unless -c or -h is supplied.
A FILE argument string of - is handled specially and causes touch to change the times of the file associated with standard output.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
- -a
change only the access time
- -c, --no-create
do not create any files
- -d, --date=STRING
parse STRING and use it instead of current time
- -f
(ignored)
- -h, --no-dereference
affect each symbolic link instead of any referenced file (useful only on systems that can change the timestamps of a symlink)
- -m
change only the modification time
- -r, --reference=FILE
use this file's times instead of current time
- -t [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss]
use specified time instead of current time, with a date-time format that differs from -d's
- --time=WORD
specify which time to change: access time (-a): 'access', 'atime', 'use'; modification time (-m): 'modify', 'mtime'
- --help
display this help and exit
- --version
output version information and exit
DATE STRING
The --date=STRING is a mostly free format human readable date string such as "Sun, 29 Feb 2004 16:21:42 -0800" or "2004-02-29 16:21:42" or even "next Thursday". A date string may contain items indicating calendar date, time of day, time zone, day of week, relative time, relative date, and numbers. An empty string indicates the beginning of the day. The date string format is more complex than is easily documented here but is fully described in the info documentation.
AUTHOR
Written by Paul Rubin, Arnold Robbins, Jim Kingdon, David MacKenzie, and Randy Smith.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/> Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
SEE ALSO
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/touch> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) touch invocation'
Packaged by Debian (9.7-3) Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.