What Does Touch Do in Linux?

The touch command is a standard command used in UNIX/Linux operating system which is used to create, change and modify timestamps of a file.

What does the touch command do to a file?

touch avoids opening, saving, and closing the file. Instead it simply updates the dates associated with the file or directory. An updated access or modification date can be important for a variety of other programs such as backup utilities or the make command-line interface programming utility.

What does touch stand for in terminal?

It’s certainly frequently used for that, but its own self-description on its own man page is: ” touch — change file access and modification times “. –