Commands using touch sorted by votes

Commands using touch (56)

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Run a file system check on your next boot.

The empty file /forcefsck causes the file system check fsck to be run next time you boot up, after which it will be removed. This works too: sudo >/forcefsck
This is sample output - yours may be different.
38

sudo touch /forcefsck

johnraff · 2009-10-29 17:04:47 6
Find files that were modified by a given command

This has helped me numerous times trying to find either log files or tmp files that get created after execution of a command. And really eye opening as to how active a given process really is. Play around with -anewer, -cnewer & -newerXY Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
[root@localhost ~]# touch /tmp/service
[root@localhost ~]# service cups restart
Stopping cups:                                             [  OK  ]
Starting cups:                                             [  OK  ]
[root@localhost ~]# find /var -newer /tmp/service
/var/cache/cups/job.cache
/var/lock/subsys
/var/lock/subsys/cups
/var/log/audit/audit.log
/var/run
/var/run/cupsd.pid
/var/run/cups
/var/run/cups/cups.sock
/var/run/cups/certs
/var/run/cups/certs/0
[root@localhost ~]#
```
22

touch /tmp/file ; $EXECUTECOMMAND ; find /path -newer /tmp/file

matthewdavis · 2009-08-31 18:47:19 3
Protect directory from an overzealous rm -rf *

Forces the -i flag on the rm command when using a wildcard delete. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
root@server ~ # cd scripts; touch ./-i
root@server ~/scripts # rm -rf *
rm: remove regular empty file `file1'? n
rm: remove regular empty file `file2'? n
rm: remove regular empty file `file3'? n
rm: remove regular empty file `file4'? n
root@server ~/scripts #
```
15

cd <directory>; touch ./-i

ljmhk · 2011-05-12 11:01:58 11
Create a bunch of dummy files for testing

Sometimes I need to create a directory of files to operate on to test out some commandlinefu I am cooking up. The main thing is the range ({1..N}) expansion.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
11

touch {1..10}.txt

slaney · 2009-03-09 12:54:45 3
Change/Modify timestamp interactively
This is sample output - yours may be different.
10

touch -d $(zenity --calendar --date-format=%F) filename

frans · 2011-11-18 17:58:47 0
convert a web page into a png

This requires the command-line print extension (see #2861 for more details). I use it to make up complex images with formatted text using CSS and whatnot. It's a lot slicker than imagemagick for certain things. Now imagine using a local webserver with PHP and a database to generate the images. Oh, the possibilities...
This is sample output - yours may be different.
9

touch $2;firefox -print $1 -printmode PNG -printfile $2

pamirian · 2009-08-04 06:55:25 1
Change/Modify timestamp
This is sample output - yours may be different.
8

touch --date "2010-01-05" /tmp/filename

raulyca · 2011-11-16 17:07:59 0
shush MOTD

I'm annoyed by the boilerplate "don't login unless you are supposed messages in our environment" - this shuts them up.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
6

touch ~/.hushlogin

elofland · 2012-12-05 18:03:41 2
convert a web page into a pdf

This uses the "command-line print" plugin for Firefox (http://torisugari.googlepages.com/commandlineprint2). This same plugin can also produce PNGs. On *nix, the file must exist; therefore the touch bit in front. Also, firefox seems to ignore saved user preferences when "printing" this way (margins, header, footer, etc.), so I had to tweak my ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/prefs.js file by hand. Yup, that's *prefs.js* not user.js - apparently, firefox ignores my user.js file too...
This is sample output - yours may be different.
5

touch $2;firefox -print $1 -printmode PDF -printfile $2

pamirian · 2009-08-04 06:40:55 0
Create a file and manipulate the date
This is sample output - yours may be different.
5

touch -d '-1 year' /tmp/oldfile

wuziduzi · 2019-04-19 17:01:16 0
Lists all files and directories with modified time newer than a given date

This is great for looking for files that have been updated recently. Logs especially or monitoring what files were added during an install.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
4

touch -t "YYYYMMDDhhmm.ss" ~/.ts ; find . -newer ~/.ts

poffey21 · 2010-10-26 19:45:32 0
Create a listing of all possible permissions and their octal representation.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

touch /tmp/$$;for N in `seq -w 0 7777|grep -v [89]`; do chmod $N /tmp/$$; P=`ls -l /tmp/$$ | awk '{print $1}'`; echo $N $P; done;rm /tmp/$$

jyoder · 2009-03-05 15:24:41 6
creeate file named after actual date

Create a file with actual date as filename Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
filename-20100524.
--
Alternatives
touch file-`date +%Y%m%d`
touch file-$(date --iso)
```
3

touch file-$(date +%Y%m%d)

rubenmoran · 2010-05-24 07:43:45 2
Prevent non-root users from logging in

Also with optional message: echo "no login for you" > /etc/nologin (This doesn't affect your current X session - you're already logged in!)
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

touch /etc/nologin

udim · 2009-04-29 19:43:14 0

Set access and modification timestamps of a file using another one as reference

atime and mtime timestamps of $FILE2 is changed according to the ones of $FILE1. If $FILE2 doesn't exist is created. Show Sample Output

touch -r "$FILE1" "$FILE2"

kobayashison · 2009-10-21 13:53:59 2

remove files and directories with acces time older than a given date

touch a dummy file with the specified date, then use find with -anewer .
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

touch -t "YYYYMMDDhhmm.ss" dummy ; find . -anewer dummy

unixmonkey7109 · 2009-11-21 04:05:45 1
Add .gitignore files to all empty directories recursively from your current directory
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

find . $ -type d -empty $ -and $ -not -regex ./\.git.* $ -exec touch {}/.gitignore \;

rpavlick · 2010-04-07 14:40:14 0
Recursively touch all files and subdirectories
This is sample output - yours may be different.
2

find . -exec touch {} \;

evandrix · 2011-03-08 03:48:41 0
Touch a file using a timestamp embedded in the file name.

tstouch takes two arguments: a filename containing a timestamp, and an extended regular expression with the parenthesized section matching a timestamp of the form YYYYMMDDhhmm or YYYYMMDDhhmm.ss. It then touches the file with that timestamp. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ touch foo201309012305.zip; ls -l foo201309012305.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 bartonski bartonski 0 Oct  1 15:50 foo201309012305.zip

$ tstouch foo201309012305.zip 'foo([0-9]{12}).zip'; ls -l foo201309012305.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 bartonsk bartonsk 0 Sep  1 23:05 foo201309012305.zip
```
2

tstouch() { [[ $1 =~ $2 ]] && touch -t ${BASH_REMATCH[1]} $1; }

bartonski · 2013-10-01 20:00:34 0
Change timestamp on a file

-a for access time, -m for modification time, -c do not create any files, -t timestamp
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

touch -amct [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss] FILE

sharfah · 2009-05-27 14:33:22 0
increase recursively the modification time for a list of files

Increase the modification date for the files selected with the find command.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

find . -type f | while read line; do NEW_TS=`date -d@$((\`stat -c '%Y' $line\` + <seconds> )) '+%Y%m%d%H%M.%S'`; touch -t $NEW_TS ${line}; done

angleto · 2010-11-18 14:03:32 0
Create a simple playlist sort by Genre using mp3info

Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
ls -al
total 40
drwxr-xr-x  2 alex alex  4096 2010-12-13 14:40 .
drwxr-xr-x 96 alex alex 16384 2010-12-13 14:15 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 alex alex  1426 2010-12-13 14:40 Blues.m3u
-rw-r--r--  1 alex alex  3668 2010-12-13 14:40 Other.m3u
-rw-r--r--  1 alex alex  4435 2010-12-13 14:40 Soundtrack.m3u
-rw-r--r--  1 alex alex  2375 2010-12-13 14:40 Uncategorized.m3u
```
1

for file in $(find ~/ -iname "*.mp3");do c=$(mp3info $file|grep Genre|cut -f 3 -d :|cut -f 2 -d " ");if [ -z "$c" ];then c="Uncategorized";fi;if [ ! -e $c ];then touch $c.m3u;fi;echo "$file">>$c.m3u;done

dzup · 2010-12-13 20:43:05 0
Generate RSA private key and self-signed certificate

This will create, in the current directory, a file called 'pk.pem' containing an unencrypted 2048-bit RSA private key and a file called 'cert.pem' containing a certificate signed by 'pk.pem'. The private key file will have mode 600. !!ATTENTION!! ==> this command will overwrite both files if present.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

touch pk.pem && chmod 600 pk.pem && openssl genrsa -out pk.pem 2048 && openssl req -new -batch -key pk.pem | openssl x509 -req -days 365 -signkey pk.pem -out cert.pem

bfreis · 2011-05-11 18:09:33 0
find files in a date range

Example above will recursively find files in current directory created/modified in 2010.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

touch -t 201001010000 begin; touch -t 201012312359.59 end; find . -newer begin -a ! -newer end

unixmonkey22900 · 2011-06-22 20:09:05 0
shut of the screen ( Fool proof )

Use the command to create a script and bind it to a key using keyboard shortcut. eg: Script locks the screen in a loop until the command is executed again.At first it
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

switchMonitor () { LF=/tmp/screen-lock; if [ -f $LF ]; then rm $LF; else touch $LF; sleep .5; while [ -f $LF ]; do xset dpms force off; sleep 2; done; fi };

totti · 2011-08-26 17:55:44 3
1 2 3 >

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List open TCP/UDP ports

The command used by applications in OS X to determine whether a plist is "good". from Ed Marczak.

The check an entire folder is a one-liner: plutil -lint * | grep -v OK$ from Ed Marczak

Commandline document conversion with Libreoffice

In this example, the docx gets converted to Open Document .odt format. For other formats, you'll need to specify the correct filter (Hint: see "Comments" link below for a nice list).

Rename files in batch

improve copy file over ssh showing progress

You set the file/dirname transfer variable, in the end point you set the path destination, this command uses pipe view to show progress, compress the file outut and takes account to change the ssh cipher. Support dirnames with spaces. Merged ideas and comments by http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/4379/copy-working-directory-and-compress-it-on-the-fly-while-showing-progress and http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/3177/move-a-lot-of-files-over-ssh

Monitor all DNS queries seen by the local machine

check open ports without netstat or lsof

pdfcount: get number of pages in a PDF file

Convert CSV to JSON

Replace 'csv_file.csv' with your filename.

Adding Prefix to File name

Good old bracket expansion :-) For large numbers of files, "rename" will spare you the for-loop, or the find/exec...

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Commands using touch (56)

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