Linux Command Line Tutorial For Beginners 11 - touch command Video Lecture | Complete Linux Course: Become a Linux Professional - Software Development

hello guys welcome to the next video on
Linux command line tutorial for
beginners in this video we will learn
how to use touch command in Linux the
touch command is the easiest way to
create new empty files in Linux
it is also used to change the timestamps
on existing files or directories so
let's see how we can use it so first of
all I will open my terminal and as you
can see on the desktop I have our
directory called a dir so I will just CD
to the desktop first of all so CD
desktop and then I will just CD inside
the directory okay and let's list all
the contents of the directory so I will
just do LS - L for long list and you can
see this directory contains five files
file1 file2 file three file for and file
five and you can see the time of the
files which is the timestamp at which
they are created or updated right now
for example we want to create a new
empty file we can use a touch command to
create a new empty file and to create a
new empty file you just need to write
touch which is a command and then there
can be options for touch but the
simplest way is to give the name of the
file so you can see the directory
already contains five files and I want
to create a sixth file so I can just say
file six and press ENTER and then I will
just list all the files once again
now you can see file six is created
right and the time stamp of this file is
the time right now which is 11:22 p.m.
right which is the creation of this file
time stamp of this file right and these
files are created at
1005 or 10:05 p.m. you can say right so
the first you know use of touch command
is to create a empty file you cannot
create a directory using a touch command
you can only create a empty file right
now earlier with touch command I have
all only used the name of the file I can
even give the you know extension of the
file for example file seven dot txt or
cpp or any other extension and it will
create it okay and let's list out all
the contents and you can see the file is
created and because we are using the the
long listing so it's also showing the
permissions and the timestamp at which
they are created or modified right now
the second use of touch command is to
change the timestamp of a file so let me
clear this terminal first and I will do
LS - L once again and you can see the
time at which these files are created or
modified now for example I want to you
know change the timestamp on these files
at which they are you know modified or
created then what I can do is I can use
the touch command on them okay so if the
file doesn't exist and if you use touch
command then it's going to create this
file right and if file already exists
and you can I if you use the touch
command on this file which already
exists it's going to update the
timestamp of this file to the current
you know time stem right so you can see
current timestamp is 23 24 and I want to
change the timestamp of this file one I
can just to touch file one
press ENTER and once again I can do LS -
L and you can see file one timestamp was
earlier
22:05 and right now it's 23 0 24 right
so in this way you can update the
timestamp of the file using a touch
command ok so these are the two basic
uses of touch command first is to create
empty files and second is to update the
timestamp of a given file so I hope you
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