TOUCH(1)						   User Commands						  TOUCH(1)



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 STAMP
	      use [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss] instead of current time

       --time=WORD
	      change the specified time: WORD is access, atime, or use: equivalent to -a WORD is modify or mtime: equivalent to -m

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
	      output version information and exit

       Note that the -d and -t options accept different time-date formats.

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
       Report touch bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: 
       General help using GNU software: 
       Report touch translation bugs to 

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright   ©   2011   Free   Software	Foundation,   Inc.    License	GPLv3+:   GNU	GPL    version	  3    or    later
       .
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO
       The  full documentation for touch is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info and touch programs are properly installed
       at your site, the command

	      info coreutils 'touch invocation'

       should give you access to the complete manual.



GNU coreutils 8.12.197-032bb				  September 2011						  TOUCH(1)