TOUCH
Command

Michael J. Mefford			1988 No. 7 (Utilities)


Purpose:	Changes the DOS date and/or time designation of a file or 
group of files either to the current system values or to user-designated 
values.

Format:	TOUCH filespec [/D date] [/T time]

Remarks:	Entered without any arguments, TOUCH displays a help screen
showing its syntax.  If given a filespec but neither of the optional switches
(/D or /T), TOUCH updates the designated file to the current system date and
time.  Note that the standard DOS filename wild cards (* and ?) are supported,
so TOUCH can operate on groups of files.

	The optional /D date switch permits entry a user-selected date in the
customary DOS mm-dd-yy format.  If desired, the hyphen delimiters may be
replaced by forward slashes (/), and the year may be entered either in full 
form (e.g. 1988) or in abbreviated (88) form.  TOUCH checks that each of the
three fields is filled with a non-zero value, but does not check the validity 
of a date (e.g. 2/31/88).  Legal DOS years are from 1980 to 2099.

	The optional /T time switch permits entry of a user-specified time, in
hours:minutes:seconds.  If the minutes and/or seconds parameters are omitted
TOUCH will set them to 0.  Hours should be entered in military (24-hour) 
format.
	Note:  The following batch file, TEST.BAT, can be used to cause a DIR
listing to leave the time field blank:

TIME 0
TOUCH TEST.BAT
DIR TEST.BAT