1 .\" $NetBSD: touch.1,v 1.25 2012/10/24 02:46:25 pgoyette Exp $
3 .\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
4 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
6 .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
7 .\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
9 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
10 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
12 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
13 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
14 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
15 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
16 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
17 .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
18 .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
19 .\" without specific prior written permission.
21 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
22 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
23 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
24 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
25 .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
26 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
27 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
28 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
29 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
30 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
33 .\" @(#)touch.1 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
40 .Nd change file access and modification times
44 .Op Fl d Ar human-datetime
45 .Op Fl Fl date Ar human-datetime
47 .Op Fl Fl reference Ar file
53 utility changes the access and modification times of files to the
55 If the file doesn't exist, it is created with default permissions.
57 The following options are available:
58 .Bl -tag -width "-d human-datetime"
60 Change the access time of the file.
61 The modification time of the file is not changed unless the
63 flag is also specified.
65 Do not create the file if it does not exist.
68 utility does not treat this as an error.
69 No error messages are displayed and the exit value is not affected.
70 .It Fl d Ar human-datetime
71 .It Fl Fl date Ar human-datetime
74 using the human datetime parser
77 This flag has no effect; it is accepted for compatibility reasons.
81 is a symbolic link, access and/or modification time of the link is changed.
85 Change the modification time of the file.
86 The access time of the file is not changed unless the
88 flag is also specified.
90 .It Fl Fl reference Ar file
91 Use the access and modifications times from
93 instead of the current time of day.
95 Change the access and modification times to the specified time.
99 .Dq [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]
100 where each pair of letters represents the following:
102 .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
104 The first two digits of the year (the century).
106 The second two digits of the year.
113 between 69 and 99 results in a
120 The month of the year, from 1 to 12.
122 The day of the month, from 1 to 31.
124 The hour of the day, from 0 to 23.
126 The minute of the hour, from 0 to 59.
128 The second of the minute, from 0 to 61.
135 letter pairs are not specified, the values default to the current
139 letter pair is not specified, the value defaults to 0.
147 options are mutually exclusive.
148 If more than one of these options is present, the last one is used.
152 The obsolescent form of
154 where a time format is specified as the first argument, is supported.
160 option is specified, there are at least two arguments, and the first
161 argument is a string of digits either eight or ten characters in length,
162 the first argument is interpreted as a time specification of the form
171 letter pairs are treated as their counterparts specified to the
176 letter pair is in the range 69 to 99, the year is set to 1969 to 1999,
177 otherwise, the year is set in the 21st century.
183 utility is expected to be a superset of the
192 A symbolic link can't be a reference file of access and/or modification time.