On macOS touch a file modification date or creation date or both

macos-ouch-modification-or-creation-or-both.md

Touch a file modification date or creation date or both

Syntax

• touch <file> → Changes the modification date of file to NOW.
• touch -a <file> → Changes the access date of file to NOW.
• touch-c <file> → Changes the creation date of file to NOW.
• touch-cm <file> → Changes both the creation date and the modification date of file to NOW.

Setup

• To your shell config file ~/.zshrc
• or your dedicated alias config file like ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/aliases.zsh
• add the following lines:

alias touch-c="dateNow=\$(date '+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S') ; SetFile -d \"\$dateNow\" \$1"
alias touch-cm="dateNow=\$(date '+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S') ; SetFile -d \"\$dateNow\" -m \"\$dateNow\" \$1"

Remarks

• The original touch command stays as is.
  • The aliases touch-c and touch-cm get added and they use SetFile which is deprecated for ages but still works as of macOS 11 Big Sur.
• The dollar symbol is escaped.
  • So the commands do not run when the login shell is initialized but only when the alias is executed.
  • date really outputs now.
  • $1 is the file you supply to the alias command.

Demo

➜  ~ cd ~/Desktop 
➜  Desktop GetFileInfo test.txt 
created: 05/30/2022 12:01:01
modified: 05/30/2022 11:47:29
➜  Desktop touch-c test.txt 
➜  Desktop GetFileInfo test.txt
created: 05/30/2022 12:03:38
modified: 05/30/2022 11:47:29
➜  Desktop touch test.txt 
➜  Desktop GetFileInfo test.txt
created: 05/30/2022 12:03:38
modified: 05/30/2022 12:03:51
➜  Desktop touch-cm test.txt   
➜  Desktop GetFileInfo test.txt
created: 05/30/2022 12:04:02
modified: 05/30/2022 12:04:02