Implement touch using Python?

Question

Looks like this is new as of Python 3.4 - pathlib.

from pathlib import Path

Path('path/to/file.txt').touch()

This will create a file.txt at the path.

--

Path.touch(mode=0o777, exist_ok=True)

Create a file at this given path. If mode is given, it is combined with the process’ umask value to determine the file mode and access flags. If the file already exists, the function succeeds if exist_ok is true (and its modification time is updated to the current time), otherwise FileExistsError is raised.

This tries to be a little more race-free than the other solutions. (The with keyword is new in Python 2.5.)

import os
def touch(fname, times=None):
    with open(fname, 'a'):
        os.utime(fname, times)

Roughly equivalent to this.

import os
def touch(fname, times=None):
    fhandle = open(fname, 'a')
    try:
        os.utime(fname, times)
    finally:
        fhandle.close()

Now, to really make it race-free, you need to use futimes and change the timestamp of the open filehandle, instead of opening the file and then changing the timestamp on the filename (which may have been renamed). Unfortunately, Python doesn't seem to provide a way to call futimes without going through ctypes or similar...

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EDIT

As noted by Nate Parsons, Python 3.3 will add specifying a file descriptor (when os.supports_fd) to functions such as os.utime, which will use the futimes syscall instead of the utimes syscall under the hood. In other words:

import os
def touch(fname, mode=0o666, dir_fd=None, **kwargs):
    flags = os.O_CREAT | os.O_APPEND
    with os.fdopen(os.open(fname, flags=flags, mode=mode, dir_fd=dir_fd)) as f:
        os.utime(f.fileno() if os.utime in os.supports_fd else fname,
            dir_fd=None if os.supports_fd else dir_fd, **kwargs)

def touch(fname):
    if os.path.exists(fname):
        os.utime(fname, None)
    else:
        open(fname, 'a').close()

Why not try this?:

import os

def touch(fname):
    try:
        os.utime(fname, None)
    except OSError:
        open(fname, 'a').close()

I believe this eliminates any race condition that matters. If the file does not exist then an exception will be thrown.

The only possible race condition here is if the file is created before open() is called but after os.utime(). But this does not matter because in this case the modification time will be as expected since it must have happened during the call to touch().

^{This answer is compatible with all versions since Python-2.5 when keyword with has been released.}

1. Create file if does not exist + Set current time
(exactly same as command touch)

import os

fname = 'directory/filename.txt'
with open(fname, 'a'):     # Create file if does not exist
    os.utime(fname, None)  # Set access/modified times to now
                           # May raise OSError if file does not exist

A more robust version:

import os

with open(fname, 'a'):
  try:                     # Whatever if file was already existing
    os.utime(fname, None)  # => Set current time anyway
  except OSError:
    pass  # File deleted between open() and os.utime() calls

2. Just create the file if does not exist
(does not update time)

with open(fname, 'a'):  # Create file if does not exist
    pass

3. Just update file access/modified times
(does not create file if not existing)

import os

try:
    os.utime(fname, None)  # Set access/modified times to now
except OSError:
    pass  # File does not exist (or no permission)

Using os.path.exists() does not simplify the code:

from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
import os

if os.path.exists(fname):
  try:
    os.utime(fname, None)  # Set access/modified times to now
  except OSError:
    pass  # File deleted between exists() and utime() calls
          # (or no permission)

Bonus: Update time of all files in a directory

from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
import os

number_of_files = 0

#   Current directory which is "walked through"
#   |     Directories in root
#   |     |  Files in root       Working directory
#   |     |  |                     |
for root, _, filenames in os.walk('.'):
  for fname in filenames:
    pathname = os.path.join(root, fname)
    try:
      os.utime(pathname, None)  # Set access/modified times to now
      number_of_files += 1
    except OSError as why:
      print('Cannot change time of %r because %r', pathname, why)

print('Changed time of %i files', number_of_files)