---
title: "rclone touch"
description: "Create new file or change file modification time."
versionIntroduced: v1.39
# autogenerated - DO NOT EDIT, instead edit the source code in cmd/touch/ and as part of making a release run "make commanddocs"
---
# rclone touch

Create new file or change file modification time.

## Synopsis

Set the modification time on file(s) as specified by remote:path to
have the current time.

If remote:path does not exist then a zero sized file will be created,
unless `--no-create` or `--recursive` is provided.

If `--recursive` is used then recursively sets the modification
time on all existing files that is found under the path. Filters are supported,
and you can test with the `--dry-run` or the `--interactive`/`-i` flag.
This will touch `--transfers` files concurrently.

If `--timestamp` is used then sets the modification time to that
time instead of the current time. Times may be specified as one of:

- 'YYMMDD' - e.g. 17.10.30
- 'YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS' - e.g. 2006-01-02T15:04:05
- 'YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSS' - e.g. 2006-01-02T15:04:05.123456789

Note that value of `--timestamp` is in UTC. If you want local time
then add the `--localtime` flag.

Metadata can be added when creating a new file with `--metadata-set`.
For example:
  rclone touch remote:path -M --metadata-set key=value

```
rclone touch remote:path [flags]
```

## Options

```
  -h, --help               help for touch
      --localtime          Use localtime for timestamp, not UTC
  -C, --no-create          Do not create the file if it does not exist (implied with --recursive)
  -R, --recursive          Recursively touch all files
  -t, --timestamp string   Use specified time instead of the current time of day
```

Options shared with other commands are described next.
See the [global flags page](/flags/) for global options not listed here.

### Important Options

Important flags useful for most commands

```text
  -n, --dry-run         Do a trial run with no permanent changes
  -i, --interactive     Enable interactive mode
  -v, --verbose count   Print lots more stuff (repeat for more)
```

### Filter Options

Flags for filtering directory listings

```text
      --delete-excluded                     Delete files on dest excluded from sync
      --exclude stringArray                 Exclude files matching pattern
      --exclude-from stringArray            Read file exclude patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --exclude-if-present stringArray      Exclude directories if filename is present
      --files-from stringArray              Read list of source-file names from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --files-from-raw stringArray          Read list of source-file names from file without any processing of lines (use - to read from stdin)
  -f, --filter stringArray                  Add a file filtering rule
      --filter-from stringArray             Read file filtering patterns from a file (use - to read from stdin)
      --hash-filter string                  Partition filenames by hash k/n or randomly @/n
      --ignore-case                         Ignore case in filters (case insensitive)
      --include stringArray                 Include files matching pattern
      --include-from stringArray            Read file include patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --max-age Duration                    Only transfer files younger than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y (default off)
      --max-depth int                       If set limits the recursion depth to this (default -1)
      --max-size SizeSuffix                 Only transfer files smaller than this in KiB or suffix B|K|M|G|T|P (default off)
      --metadata-exclude stringArray        Exclude metadatas matching pattern
      --metadata-exclude-from stringArray   Read metadata exclude patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --metadata-filter stringArray         Add a metadata filtering rule
      --metadata-filter-from stringArray    Read metadata filtering patterns from a file (use - to read from stdin)
      --metadata-include stringArray        Include metadatas matching pattern
      --metadata-include-from stringArray   Read metadata include patterns from file (use - to read from stdin)
      --min-age Duration                    Only transfer files older than this in s or suffix ms|s|m|h|d|w|M|y (default off)
      --min-size SizeSuffix                 Only transfer files bigger than this in KiB or suffix B|K|M|G|T|P (default off)
```

### Listing Options

Flags for listing directories

```text
      --default-time Time   Time to show if modtime is unknown for files and directories (default 2000-01-01T00:00:00Z)
      --fast-list           Use recursive list if available; uses more memory but fewer transactions
```

## See Also

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* [rclone](/commands/rclone/)	 - Show help for rclone commands, flags and backends.


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