Re: Command touch and irregular file names

["Mumia W.." <paduille.4061.mumia.w+nospam@earthlink.net>]

On 08/14/2007 07:54 PM, - Tong - wrote:
> Hi, 
>
> How to let command touch to work with irregular file names?
>
> In my script I have 
>
>  touch -r "$file1" "$file2"
>
> the file1/2 can be anything file, ../path/file, /root/file, etc.
>
> The problem is when file1/2 are irregular file names. E.g., -test.file1/2.
>
> I.e., anyway to make the following touch command works?
>
>  $ touch -r "-test.file1" "-test.file2"
>  touch: invalid date format `est.file2'
>
> FYI, I tried this but didn't work:
>
>  $ touch -r -- "-test.file1" "-test.file2"
>  touch: invalid date format `est.file1'
>
> I think if the touch command uses the standard gnu getopt lib, then
> the above code should work, shouldn't it?
>
> Thanks
>
> tong

My touch command has the same problem as yours. I discovered this 
workaround:

file1="-test.file1"
file2="-test.file2"
ln -s -- $file1 ref
touch -r ref -- $file2
rm ref

I hope this helps.

If you think this is a bug, search for it in the bug tracking system, 
and if it's not there, you can report it.

I tested the Sarge version of 'touch.' The Etch version may be fixed. 
That's why it's good to look at the bugs list first--to avoid annoying 
our lovable Debian maintainers :-)