Linux and Unix settime and touch

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About settime and touch
Syntax
Examples
Related commands
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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

-aChange the access time of file. Do not change the modification time unless -m is also specified.
-cDo not create a specified file if it does not exist. Do not write any diagnostic messages concerning this condition.
-mChange the modification time of file. Do not change the access time unless -a is also specified.
-r ref_fileUse the corresponding times of the file named by ref_file instead of the current time.
-t timeUse 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_fileUse the corresponding times of the file named by ref_file instead of the current time.
fileA 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