Use this command to change the time stamp of a file or to create a
zero-length (empty) file.
Requirements and Restrictions
- The parameters for this command are case-sensitive. You
must enter the parameters exactly as shown in the syntax
diagram.
- You can enter this command only in CRAS state or higher.
Format
- -a
- changes the access time, which is the time when the file was last accessed
with a read or write operation.
- -m
- changes the modification time, which is the time when the file was last
accessed with a write operation.
- -c
- indicates that you do not want to create a file if the file does not
exist.
- -rreffile
- specifies a file whose corresponding time is to be used instead of the
current time, where reffile is the file name.
- -ttime
- specifies the time to use instead of the current time. Specify
time in the format CCYYMMDDhhmm.SS, where:
- CC
- is the first 2 digits of the year (that is, the century). This is
optional.
- YY
- is the last 2 digits of the year. This is optional.
- MMDDhhmm
- is the month, day, hour, and minutes. You must specify
this portion of the time.
- SS
- is the seconds. This is optional.
- path
- is the path name of the file whose time stamp you want to change.
If the file does not exist, a new zero-length file is created.
Additional Information
- Online help information is available for this command. To display
the help information, enter one of the following:
ZFILE HELP touch
ZFILE HELP
ZFILE ?
In addition, the correct command syntax is displayed if you enter the syntax
incorrectly.
- If you specify more than one parameter, you can specify these parameters
separately or together. For example, you can enter one of the
following:
- ZFILE touch -a -c path
- ZFILE touch -ac path
- This command does not read from the standard input (stdin)
stream.
This command does not write to the standard output (stdout)
stream.
You can redirect the standard error (stderr) stream from the
display terminal to a file by specifying one of the redirection characters
(2> or 2>>) followed by the file name to which you want
the error output written. The 2> character writes the error
output to a file. The 2>> character appends the error output
to an existing file.
- Note:
- When you use the > or 2> character, if the file that
you are redirecting data to already exists, the file is overwritten and any
data in that file is lost. If you do not want to overwrite the file,
ensure that you use the >> or 2>> character.
- The ZFILE touch command is based on a subset of the touch utility of the
Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments (POSIX)
standards.
- You can use the following wildcard characters in the path name to select
files that satisfy a particular name pattern:
- Wildcard
- Description
- *
- Matches any string, including the empty string.
- ?
- Matches any single character.
- [..]
- Matches any one of the characters between the brackets. You can
specify a range of characters by separating a pair of characters with a dash
(-).
- This command supports the following three quoting mechanisms, which allow
you to override the special meaning of some characters:
- escape character (\)
- preserves the literal value of the character that follows. To
ignore the special meaning of a character, escape it by placing a backslash
(\) in front of it. In the example that follows, environment
variable PATH is /bin:/usr/bin:., the first
dollar sign ($) is escaped because of the preceding backslash, and the
second dollar sign takes on a special meaning.
User: ZFILE echo \$PATH is $PATH
System: $PATH is /bin:/usr/bin:.
- single quotation marks (' ')
- preserves the literal value of all characters between the opening single
quotation mark and the closing single quotation mark. For example,
entering ZFILE echo '*' displays an asterisk
character (*). Without the single quotation marks, the files
in the current working directory are displayed.
- double quotation marks (" ")
- preserves the literal value of all characters between the opening double
quotation mark and the closing double quotation mark except the dollar sign
($), the backquote (`), and the backslash (\).
This allows you to use the escape character inside double quotation marks,
which you cannot do in single quotation marks.
For example, entering ZFILE echo "\$PATH is \"$PATH\""
displays $PATH is "/bin:/usr/bin:."
If you want to use the literal meaning of any of the following
characters, you must always use a quoting mechanism:
left angle bracket (<)
| right angle bracket (>)
| ampersand (&)
|
backquote (`)
| backslash (\)
| dollar sign ($)
|
double quotation mark (")
| new-line (\n)
| left parenthesis ( ( )
|
right parenthesis ( ) )
| semicolon (;)
| single quotation mark (')
|
blank space
| tab
| vertical bar (|)
|
In addition, use a quoting mechanism when any of the following characters are
used in a way that takes on a special meaning but you want to use the literal
meaning:
asterisk (*)
| equal sign (=)
| left square bracket ( [ )
|
number sign (#)
| question mark (?)
| tilde (~)
|
Examples
In the following example, the access and modification time stamps are
changed.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|User: ZFILE touch test.file |
| |
|System: FILE0003I 15:31:22 touch test.... COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY. NO OUTPUT TO DISPLAY |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Related Information
See Information Technology--Portable Operating System Interface
for Computer Environments (POSIX) for more information about the POSIX
standards.