CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxgnu-coreutils
Riccardo D
Riccardo D

Reputation: 621

Why touch - doesn't return any error and yet is not creating the file -?

I wanted to create a file called "-" through the command touch.

touch -

I expected an error or the creation of the file, however no error and no file creation.

Also, how can I create the file called "-". Is it even possible?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3279

Answers (1)

choroba
choroba

Reputation: 241988

As documented in man touch:

A FILE argument string of - is handled specially and causes touch to change the times of the file associated with standard output.

To create a file of that name, use a longer path, e.g.:

touch ./-

To see the difference, try

( echo a ; sleep 2; ) > file ; date ; stat file

versus

( echo a ; sleep 2; touch - ) > file ; date ; stat file

In the first case, the modification time will be 2 seconds before the actual time. In the second case, it will be almost identical to it.

Upvotes: 3

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