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<h2><a name="touch">Touch</a></h2>
<h3>Description</h3>
<p>Changes the modification time of a file and possibly creates it at
the same time. In addition to working with a single file, this Task
can also work a <a href="../CoreTypes/fileset.html">Fileset</a> (which
also includes directories)
or a <a href="../CoreTypes/filelist.html">Filelist</a> (since Ant 1.6).</p>
<h3>Parameters</h3>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b></td>
<td valign="top"><b>Description</b></td>
<td align="center" valign="top"><b>Required</b></td>
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<td valign="top">file</td>
<td valign="top">The name of the file.</td>
<td valign="top" align="center">Unless a nested fileset element
or a nested filelist element has been specified.</td>
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<tr>
<td valign="top">millis</td>
<td valign="top">Specifies the new modification time of the file
in milliseconds since midnight Jan 1 1970.</td>
<td valign="center" align="center" rowspan="2">No--datetime takes
precedence, however if both are omitted the current time is assumed.</td>
</tr>
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<td valign="top">datetime</td>
<td valign="top">Specifies the new modification time of the file.</td>
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<td valign="top">pattern</td>
<td valign="top">SimpleDateFormat-compatible pattern string.
Defaults to MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM AM_or_PM or MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS AM_or_PM.
<b>Since Ant 1.6.3</b></td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
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<td valign="top">mkdirs</td>
<td valign="top">Whether to create nonexistent parent
directories when touching new files. <b>Since Ant 1.6.3</b></td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No, default <i>false</i>.</td>
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<td valign="top">verbose</td>
<td valign="top">Whether to log the creation of new files.
<b>Since Ant 1.6.3</b></td>
<td valign="top" align="center">No, default <i>true</i>.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h3>Parameters specified as nested elements</h3>
<p><b>Since Ant 1.6.3,</b> a nested <a href="../CoreTypes/mapper.html">
mapper</a> can be specified. Files specified via nested
<code>fileset</code>s, <code>filelist</code>s, or the <code>file</code>
attribute are mapped using the specified mapper. For each file mapped,
the resulting files are touched. If the original file exists its
timestamp will be used. Otherwise the task settings (<code>millis</code>,
<code>datetime</code>) take effect.</p>
<h3>Examples</h3>
<pre> <touch file="myfile"/></pre>
<p>creates <code>myfile</code> if it doesn't exist and changes the
modification time to the current time.</p>
<pre> <touch file="myfile" datetime="06/28/2000 2:02 pm"/></pre>
<p>creates <code>myfile</code> if it doesn't exist and changes the
modification time to Jun, 28 2000 2:02 pm (14:02 for those used to 24
hour times).</p>
<pre> <touch datetime="09/10/1974 4:30 pm">
<fileset dir="src_dir"/>
</touch></pre>
<p>changes the modification time to Oct, 09 1974 4:30 pm of all files and directories
found in <code>src_dir</code>. </p>
<pre> <touch file="myfile" datetime="06/28/2000 2:02:17 pm"/></pre>
<p>creates <code>myfile</code> if it doesn't exist and changes the
modification time to Jun, 28 2000 2:02:17 pm (14:02:17 for those used to 24
hour times), if the filesystem allows a precision of one second - a
time close to it otherwise.</p>
<pre> <touch file="foo">
<mapper type="glob" from="foo" to="bar" />
</touch>
</pre>
<p>creates <code>bar</code> if it doesn't exist and changes the
modification time to that of <code>foo</code>.</p>
<hr>
<p align="center">Copyright © 2000-2001,2003-2004 The Apache Software Foundation. All rights
Reserved.</p>
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