permite actualizarea datei ultimei accesari (modificari) la data curenta
razvan@ragnarok:~/mydocs/simple_dir$ ls razvan@ragnarok:~/mydocs/simple_dir$ touch simple_file.txt razvan@ragnarok:~/mydocs/simple_dir$ ls -l total 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 razvan razvan 0 Sep 8 20:13 simple_file.txt razvan@ragnarok:~/mydocs/simple_dir$ touch simple_file.txt razvan@ragnarok:~/mydocs/simple_dir$ ls -l total 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 razvan razvan 0 Sep 8 20:14 simple_file.txt razvan@ragnarok:~/mydocs/simple_dir$
se observa crearea fisierului in urma primei folosiri a comenzii touch si apoi schimbarea datei ultimei actualizari dupa cea de-a doua folosire.