I've noticed sometimes I touch a file that does not exist at all and after the command, the files get created. However, depending on what directory I'm touching, I get "No such file or directory" error.
For example, If I run touch foo.txt, the foo.txt file gets created in my home directory. Instead, if I run touch /bar/foo.txt, I get touch: cannot touch '/bar/foo.txt': No such file or directory.
What's the logic behind this? Thanks.
The touch command doesn't need the target file to exist, but it needs the parent directory of the target file to exist. So if you want to run touch /bar/foo.txt then you need to make sure that the /bar/ directory already exists.
The touch command (like most command-line programs) also assumes that the path argument that you give it is a relative path. So touch foo.txt will create a file in your current working directory. If your current directory happens to be your home directory then foo.txt will be created in your home directory.
You are getting "No such file or directory" error because /bar/foo.txt is looking in root/bar/foo.txt. From your home directory try "bar/foo.txt" (not /bar/foo.txt). Assuming that bar directory exists in your home directory
/bardirectory exist? That's whattouchcomplains about. – Arkadiusz Drabczyk Oct 18 '17 at 22:55