Using "Touch" to Create Directories

using touch to create directories?

Since find outputs one file per line:

cat a.txt | while read file; do
    if [[ "$file" = */* ]]; then
        mkdir -p "${file%/*}";
    fi;

    touch "$file";
done

EDIT:

This would be slightly more efficient if the directories where created in a separate step:

cat a.txt | grep / | sed 's|/[^/]*$||' | sort -u | xargs -d $'\n' mkdir -p

cat a.txt | while read file; do
    touch "$file";
done

And, no, touch cannot create directories on its own.

is there a touch that can create parent directories like mkdir -p?

There is no touch that can create parent directory path, so write your own in standard POSIX-shell grammar that also works with zsh:

#!/usr/bin/env sh

touchp() {
  for arg
  do
    # Get base directory
    baseDir=${arg%/*}

    # If whole path is not equal to the baseDire (sole element)
    # AND baseDir is not a directory (or does not exist)
    if ! { [ "$arg" = "$baseDir" ] || [ -d "$baseDir" ];}; then
      # Creates leading directories
      mkdir -p "${arg%/*}"
    fi

    # Touch file in-place without cd into dir
    touch "$arg"
  done
}

How to create file at specified directory with touch command

Try

touch ../my_directory/file

it won't create ../my_directory though, but I think this is not what you asked for.

Create directory and files with one command

I recommend -p.

qc() { local p="$1";
  if [[ -n "$p" ]];
  then mkdir -p "$p" # can be any full or relative path;
  else echo "Use: qc <dirpath> [f1[..fN]]"; return 1;
  fi;
  shift;
  for f; do touch "$p/$f"; done;
}

$: qc
Use: qc <dirpath> [f1[..fN]]

$: cd /tmp
$: qc a/b/c 5 4 3 2 1    # relative path
$: qc a/b                # no files; dir already exists; no problem
$: qc /tmp/a/b/c/d 3 2 1 # full path that partially exists
$: find a                # all ok
a
a/b
a/b/c
a/b/c/1
a/b/c/2
a/b/c/3
a/b/c/4
a/b/c/5
a/b/c/d
a/b/c/d/1
a/b/c/d/2
a/b/c/d/3

Create a File with Touch on a specific Directory

Simply prepend the directory variable to the file you are touching.

touch "$MYDIR/$(basename $UNZIPFILE).done"

If the directory doesn't exist, you need to create it.

mkdir -p "$MYDIR" && touch "$MYDIR/$(basename $UNZIPFILE).done"

(It's also better to use $(command) syntax instead of backticks for command substitution.)

How to touch a file and mkdir if needed in one line

In perl, using one of my favorite module: Path::Tiny.

path("/opt/test/test.txt")->touchpath;

From the doc:

Combines mkpath and touch. Creates the parent directory if it doesn't
exist, before touching the file.

Error when creating Directory and creating files using touch in UNIX

The issue is you missed the slash after livingthings in mkdir -p livingthings/{birds..... not mkdir -p livingthings{birds.... Because of this it creates a directory named livingthingsbirds instead of livingthings/birds. But then in your touch command u r using livingthings/ so thats why it cant find that directory.

Without changing your current directory, create an empty file in another directory in Linux?

Simply like that :

$ touch ../lastname/test2.txt

Note that instead of touch, you can use >

$ > ../lastname/test2.txt

You can also use an absolute path

$ > /Users/Directories/lastname/test2.txt

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