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: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
       Report touch translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright  ©  2013  Free  Software  Foundation,  Inc.   License  GPLv3+:  GNU  GPL  version  3  or  later
       <http://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.

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.