Quick links About settime and touch
Syntax
Examples
Related commands
Linux / Unix main page About settime and touch Change file access and modification time. Syntax touch [-a] [-c] [-m] [-r ref_file | -t time ] file settime [ -f ref_file ] file
| -a | Change the access time of file. Do not change the modification time unless -m is also specified. |
| -c | Do not create a specified file if it does not exist. Do not write any diagnostic messages concerning this condition. |
| -m | Change the modification time of file. Do not change the access time unless -a is also specified. |
| -r ref_file | Use the corresponding times of the file named by ref_file instead of the current time. |
| -t time | Use the specified time instead of the current time. time will be a decimal number of the form: [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm [.SS] MM - The month of the year [01-12].
DD - The day of the month [01-31].
hh - The hour of the day [00-23].
mm - The minute of the hour [00-59].
CC - The first two digits of the year.
YY - The second two digits of the year.
SS - The second of the minute [00-61]. |
| -f ref_file | Use the corresponding times of the file named by ref_file instead of the current time. |
| file | A path name of a file whose times are to be modified. |
Examples settime myfile.txt Sets the file myfile.txt as the current time / date. touch newfile.txt Creates a file known as "newfile.txt", if the file does not already exist. If the file already exists the accessed / modification time is updated for the file newfile.txt Related commands date | 
