Course/Working with Files & Directories/Creating Files

Creating Files

Use touch to create new empty files from the command line.

The touch command creates a new, empty file. If the file already exists, it updates the file's modification timestamp without changing its contents. The name comes from the idea of "touching" a file to update its date, but in practice, everyone uses it to create new files.

touch newfile.txt              # create a single file
touch index.html style.css     # create multiple files at once
touch projects/app.js          # create a file inside a directory

You can create multiple files in one command by listing them all as arguments. This is a common pattern when setting up a new project — create all your starter files in one shot. Note that the directory must already exist; touch creates files, not directories.

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You can also create files by redirecting output into them (like echo "hello" > file.txt), but touch is the clearest way to express "I want an empty file to exist." It's also safe — it never overwrites existing content.

WIN

Windows Command Prompt doesn't have touch. The closest equivalent is type nul > newfile.txt. PowerShell offers New-Item newfile.txt -ItemType File. In WSL, touch works as shown.

You have a projects directory ready to go. Use touch to create a file called hello.txt inside it.

Practice