touch changes file timestamps.
The touch command updates the access and modification times of each FILE to the current system time.
If you specify a FILE that does not already exist, touch creates an empty file with that name (unless the -c or -h options are specified; see below).
If the FILE argument is a dash ("-") is handled specially and causes touch to change the times of the file associated with standard output.
touch [OPTION]... FILE...
In the options below, arguments to long options are mandatory for short options as well:
|-a||Change only the access time.|
|-c, --no-create||Do not create any files.|
|-d, --date=STRING||Parse the string STRING and use it instead of current time.|
|-f||Ignored, but included for compatibility reasons.|
|-h, --no-dereference||Affect each symbolic link instead of any referenced file (useful only on systems that can change the timestamps of a symlink).|
|-m||Change only the modification time.|
|-r, --reference=FILE||Use this FILE's times instead of current time.|
|-t STAMP||Use [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss] instead of current time.|
|--time=WORD||Change the specified time: WORD is access, atime, or use; or modify (equivalent to -a WORD), or mtime (equivalent to -m).|
|--help||Display a help message, and exit.|
|--version||Display version information, and exit.|
Note that the -d and -t options accept different time-date formats.
If file.txt exists, touch updates its access and modification times to the current time. If file.txt doesn't exist, it is created as a new, empty file.
date — Output the current date and time.