## Touch

### Description

Changes the modification time of a resource and possibly creates it at the same time. In addition to working with a single file, this Task can also work on resources and resource collections (which also includes directories). Prior to Ant 1.7 only FileSet or Filelist (since Ant 1.6) have been supported.

### Parameters

Attribute | Description | Required
file | The name of the file. | Unless a nested resource collection element has been specified.
millis | Specifies the new modification time of the file in milliseconds since midnight Jan 1 1970. | No--datetime takes precedence, however if both are omitted the current time is assumed.
datetime | Specifies the new modification time of the file.
pattern | SimpleDateFormat-compatible pattern string. Defaults to MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM AM_or_PM or MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS AM_or_PM. Since Ant 1.6.3 | No
mkdirs | Whether to create nonexistent parent directories when touching new files. Since Ant 1.6.3 | No, default false.
verbose | Whether to log the creation of new files. Since Ant 1.6.3 | No, default true.

### Parameters specified as nested elements

#### any resource collection

You can use any number of nested resource collection elements to define the resources for this task and refer to resources defined elsewhere. Note: resources passed to this task must implement the `org.apache.tools.ant.types.resources.Touchable` interface, this is true for all filesystem-based resources like those returned by path, fileset ot filelist.

For backwards compatibility directories matched by nested filesets will be "touched" as well, use a <type> selector to suppress this. This only applies to filesets nested into the task directly, not to filesets nested into a path or any other resource collection.

#### mapper

Since Ant 1.6.3, a nested mapper can be specified. Files specified via nested `fileset`s, `filelist`s, or the `file` 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 (`millis`, `datetime`) take effect.

### Examples

      <touch file="myfile"/>

creates `myfile` if it doesn't exist and changes the modification time to the current time.

      <touch file="myfile" datetime="06/28/2000 2:02 pm"/>

creates `myfile` 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).

      <touch datetime="09/10/1974 4:30 pm">
        <fileset dir="src_dir"/>
      </touch>

changes the modification time to Oct, 09 1974 4:30 pm of all files and directories found in `src_dir`.

      <touch file="myfile" datetime="06/28/2000 2:02:17 pm"/>

creates `myfile` 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.

      <touch file="foo">
        <mapper type="glob" from="foo" to="bar" />
      </touch>

creates `bar` if it doesn't exist and changes the modification time to that of `foo`.