# Command: touch

      The TOUCH program modifies the date and/or time of files on a disk.

## Syntax:

      touch [-?] [-C] [-Dpathname] [-F] [Date] [Time] Pathspec [...]
      touch [/?] [/C] [/Dpathname] [/F] [Date] [Time] Pathspec [...]
            Pathspec specifies a file or group of files to be touched, and
            may contain an initial drive specification, a directory path
            specification, and/or a file specification, and may specify a
            group of files (using the '?' and '*' wildcard characters) or
            a single file (an unambiguous specification). Pathspec may be
            repeated as needed.

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## Options:

      -C          Don't create files that do not already exist.
      -Dpathname  Duplicate date and time from specified file. If this option
                  is used, date or time may not be specified.
      -F          Set time to file's version number.
      -?          Shows the help.
      Date        The new date on the files to be modified. If this option is
                  used, -Dpathname may not be specified.
      Time        The new time on the files to be modified. If this option is
                  used, -Dpathname may not be specified.
      The date format is determined by your COUNTRY setting, see CONFIG.SYS
      / FDCONFIG.SYS.
      The character '/' may be used as the date separator.
      The A and P (a.m, p.m) suffixes on the time parameter are optional.
      If neither date nor time are supplied, current date and time are used.
      Non-existent files are created unless -C is given.

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## Comments:

      TOUCH allows the date, time, or both date and time of the file to be
      modified. TOUCH can set the date and time to the current date and
      time, or to any date and time specified by the user. The date and time
      can also be set to zero, which causes the values to be displayed as
      blank in the directory listing under some versions of DOS.
      A date must be formatted as:
        nn-nn-nn or nn/nn/nn.
      The order in which the date numbers are interpreted depends on the
      country number. There are three standard date orders:
        mm-dd-yy  (American)
        dd-mm-yy  (European)
        yy.mm.dd  (Japanese)
      A time parameter must be formatted as:
        hh:mm[:ss][a|p]
      The second colon and the 'ss' value are optional. If they are not given,
      a seconds value of zero will be used. The 'a' and 'p' suffixes (a.m and
      p.m) are optional, and if neither is used, TOUCH will assume that the
      time is being specified in 24-hour format.
      THE -C OPTION:
        TOUCH will (by default) create files specified unambiguously (i.e.
        named explicitly, without wildcards) if they don't already exist.
        This is apparently the behaviour of the Unix 'touch', though it is
        not usual in DOS implementations. This feature can be overridden
        by the -C command line switch, which tells TOUCH not to create the
        specified file if it does not already exist. I believe this is also
        standard in Unix implementations.
        For example, the command TOUCH NOSUCH.FIL (if NOSUCH.FIL does not
        already exist), will create an empty (zero bytes long) file called
        NOSUCH.FIL. The command TOUCH -C NOSUCH.FIL will report an error
        and will not create the file.
      TOUCH has the following EXITCODES (ERRORLEVEL):
        0    Normal completion; no errors
        2    One or more errors occurred during processing
        48   Error during processing of -Dpathname option
        162  Insufficient memory (approx. 64K of memory is required)
        255  Incorrect usage syntax

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## Examples:

      touch 12-31-2008 06:10p C:\FDOS\BIN\*.*

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## See also:

      config.sys
      country
      fdconfig.sys

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## File:

      Please read this command's lsm file also.
      You will find the updated version (internet) here and
      the version described in this manual page here.
      The lsm file contains information about the name of the programmer,
      the download site, and some other command related information.

#### [Main menu] [top] [Syntax] [Options] [Comments] [Examples] [See also] (File)

      Copyright © 2008 W. Spiegl.

      This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
      See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.