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
Create a file and manipulate the date
This is sample output - yours may be different.
6

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

wuziduzi · 2019-04-19 17:01:16 0
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
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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Quick case-insenstive partial filename search

This is a simple command, but extremely useful. It's a quick way to search the file names in the current directory for a substring. Normally people use "ls *term*" but that requires the stars and is not case insensitive. Color (for both ls and grep) is an added bonus.

Ease your directory exploration

Usage : tt [OCCURRENCE] tt will display a tree from your actual path tt .svn will display only line containing .svn

force a rescan on a host of scsi devices (useful for adding partitions to vmware on the fly)

Lists all usernames in alphabetical order

Print out a man page

man -t manpagename gives a postscript version of said man page. You then pipe it to ls, and assuming you have cups set up, it prints in your default printer.

Convert seconds to [DD:][HH:]MM:SS

Converts any number of seconds into days, hours, minutes and seconds. sec2dhms() { declare -i SS="$1" D=$(( SS / 86400 )) H=$(( SS % 86400 / 3600 )) M=$(( SS % 3600 / 60 )) S=$(( SS % 60 )) [ "$D" -gt 0 ] && echo -n "${D}:" [ "$H" -gt 0 ] && printf "%02g:" "$H" printf "%02g:%02g\n" "$M" "$S" }

randomize hostname and mac address, force dhcp renew. (for anonymous networking)

this string of commands will release your dhcp address, change your mac address, generate a new random hostname and then get a new dhcp lease.

route output as next command's parameters

Tail a log file with long lines truncated

This truncates any lines longer than 80 characters. Also useful for looking at different parts of the line, e.g. cut -b 50-100 shows columns 50 through 100.

Get AWS temporary credentials ready to export based on a MFA virtual appliance

You might want to secure your AWS operations requiring to use a MFA token. But then to use API or tools, you need to pass credentials generated with a MFA token. This commands asks you for the MFA code and retrieves these credentials using AWS Cli. To print the exports, you can use: `awk '{ print "export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=\"" $1 "\"\n" "export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=\"" $2 "\"\n" "export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=\"" $3 "\"" }'` You must adapt the command line to include: * $MFA_IDis ARN of the virtual MFA or serial number of the physical one * TTL for the credentials

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Commands using touch (56)

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