Linux touch Command Summary with Examples Tutorial

Examples of the Linux touch Command

Beginner

Learn to update timestamps and create empty files at the Linux command line.

Video Tutorial

Videos can also be accessed from the Linux Essentials Playlist on YouTube.

Linux touch Command Summary with Examples (3:57)

Video Script

The Command and Why You Need It

Our sixteenth word, or command to memorize is touch from the category Files.

touch allows you to update file timestamps.

Common Linux touch Options

-options	description
`--help`	Print help screen
`--date`	Update to a different date or time other than now

Recall from our last video (tutorial) we saw our first command related to time, now we'll be able to edit the timestamps saved to those files.

Before we start, it helps to think of commands as mini programs and most follow this structure: command -option(s) argument(s).

The touch command has 11 options and the argument is the file you'd like to edit, and if you think about it, the argument is required here, as you can't touch nothing, right?

As with many commands, the double-dash --help option is available. If no option is specified, the default update is to the current time.

With the double-dash --date option you can update to a different date using a human-readable date format, like "next Monday".

So why is touch an important command? Well, touch is a helpful command when creating scripts and surprisingly is a great way to create a new empty file as well. And now you know how to do that.

Demonstration

Okay, the best way to embed this in your memory is by typing in your own terminal window.

Find this on your Mac using a program called Terminal. On Linux use Terminal or Konsole, and currently Microsoft is adding this functionality to Windows.

Here we go, let's start with that cool feature of the touch command, creating a file. Let's make one called video16.txt and then list files using ls -og to simplify the view so we can see the timestamps.

$ touch video16.txt $ ls -og total 8 -rw-r--r-- 1 100 Oct 10 18:42 video11.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 0 Oct 10 21:15 video16.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 176 Oct 4 18:14 video5.txt

Notice, the date is October 10, and how the file size is zero. Interesting, isn't it?

Now, let's try something fun. Let's update, using touch --date="yesterday" and the file name video16.txt.

$ touch --date="yesterday" video16.txt $ ls -og total 8 -rw-r--r-- 1 100 Oct 10 18:42 video11.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 0 Oct 9 21:16 video16.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 176 Oct 4 18:14 video5.txt

And ls -og again, and voila, the timestamp now reads October 9.

A Final Tip

Okay now you know how to use touch. And you know the syntax for commands, options and arguments.

One last tip about the touch command. Files actually have three timestamps, the first one is associated with changes to contents, next permissions, and last the read time. We'll revisit this topic later.

Okay, thanks for visiting today. I hope this was a fun introduction to the touch command.

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Linux touch Command Summary with Examples