Skip to content What is the touch command in Linux(Unix)?
The touch command in Linux is used to create an empty file. It is also used to update the “last modified timestamp” of a file.
E.g
touch file1.txt
Prerequisites
Syntax
touch filename
To create multiple files with a single touch command, use the below syntax
touch file1 file2 file3 .. filen
# or
touch file{1..10}.txt # this will create file1.txt to file10.txt in one go
Description
To know details of the touch command, please run man touch.
Major Use cases of Touch command
Apart from the 3 use cases mentioned above, the touch command can be used for the below use cases as well.
Update the access timestamp of a single file or multiple file
touch -a file1 file2..filen
# example
touch -a file1 file2 file3
Update the modified timestamp of a single file or multiple file
touch -t file1 file2..filen
# example
touch -t file1 file2 file3
Conclusion
In this short post, you learned about how to use the touch command for various use cases.
Enjoy the post!!
