simultaneously create three empty files?

na5m · #1 (**permalink**) 06-14-2008

I can't get touch to simultaneously create three empty files file1, file2, file3. I tried:

Code:

$ touch file[1-3]

but all I got was one file:

Code:

$ file[1-3]

What did I do wrong?

Perderabo · #2 (**permalink**) 06-14-2008

With file[1-3], the current directory is searched and if filenames matching the pattern exist, the pattern is replaced with the list. Otherwise, the pattern is left alone.

If you:
touch file1 file2 file3 file4 file5
first, you command would update the timestamp on the first three.

What would you expect:
touch *
to do? Create all possible file names????

na5m · #3 (**permalink**) 06-14-2008

Quote:

What would you expect:
touch *
to do? Create all possible file names????

Now that would eat up some serious disk space

So there's no tricky way to use touch to create multiple files simultaneously in one brief command?

rubin · #4 (**permalink**) 06-14-2008

Use a loop,

Code:

i=1
while [ $i -le 5 ]; do touch file$i; i=`expr $i + 1`; done

drl · #5 (**permalink**) 06-14-2008

Hi.

Some shells may help:

Code:

#!/bin/bash3 -

# @(#) s1       Demonstrate brace expansion.

echo
echo "(Versions displayed with local utility \"version\")"
version >/dev/null 2>&1 && version =o $(_eat $0 $1)
echo

rm -f scratch*
echo " Situation before:"
ls scratch*

touch scratch{1..3}

echo
echo " Situation after :"
ls scratch*

exit 0

Producing:

Code:

% ./s1

(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
Linux 2.6.11-x1
GNU bash 3.00.16(1)-release

 Situation before:
ls: scratch*: No such file or directory

 Situation after :
scratch1  scratch2  scratch3

See man page for details -- also worked on ksh 93s+ ... cheers, drl

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