touch

Command Function

This command is used to create an empty file in a specified directory.
If this command is executed to create an existing file, the execution will be successful but the timestamp will not be updated.

Syntax

touch [filename]

Parameters

Table 1 Parameter description

Parameter	Description	Value Range
--help	Displays the parameters supported by the touch command.	N/A
filename	Specifies the name of the file to create.	N/A

Usage Guidelines

The touch command creates an empty file that is readable and writeable.
You can use the touch command to create multiple files at a time.

NOTICE
If you run the touch command to create a file in a directory storing important system resources, unexpected results such as a system breakdown may occur. For example, if you run the touch uartdev-0 command in the /dev directory, the system may stop responding.

Note

The shell does not support --help or creation of multiple files at the same time. mksh supports it. To switch to mksh, run cd bin and ./mksh.

Example

Run the following commands:

touch file.c
touch testfile1 testfile2 testfile3

Output

Example 1: Create a file named file.c.

OHOS:/tmp$ ls
OHOS:/tmp$ touch file.c
OHOS:/tmp$ ls
file.c
OHOS:/tmp$ ll
total 0
-rwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 0 1979-12-31 00:00 file.c*

Example 2: Create three files (testfile1, testfile2, and testfile3) at a time.

*OHOS:/tmp$
OHOS:/tmp$ touch testfile1 testfile2 testfile3
OHOS:/tmp$ ll
total 0
-rwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 0 1979-12-31 00:00 testfile1*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 0 1979-12-31 00:00 testfile2*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 0 1979-12-31 00:00 testfile3*
OHOS:/tmp$