Windows equivalent of 'touch' (i.e. the node.js way to create an index.html)

Question

On a windows machine I get this error

\'touch\' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Answer 1

No command – neither typenor echo– is necessary to emulate Unix's/Mac OS X's 'touch' command in a Windows Powershell terminal. Simply use the following shorthand:

$null > filename

This will create an empty file named 'filename' at your current location. Use any filename extension that you might need, e.g. '.txt'.

Source: https://superuser.com/questions/502374/equivalent-of-linux-touch-to-create-an-empty-file-with-powershell (see comments)

Answer 2

On windows Power Shell, you can use the following command:

New-Item <filename.extension>

or

New-Item <filename.extension> -type file

Note: New-Item can be replaced with its alias ni

Answer 3

You can also use copy con [filename] in a Windows command window (cmd.exe):

C:\copy con yourfile.txt [enter]
C:\CTRL + Z [enter] //hold CTRL key & press "Z" then press Enter key.
^Z
    1 Files Copied.

This will create a file named yourfile.txt in the local directory.

Answer 4

Assuming the file exists and you just need to update the timestamp.

type test.c > test.c.bkp && type test.c.bkp > test.c && del test.c.bkp

Answer 5

Yes you can use Node for Touch I just use that and its working all fine in windows Cmd or gitbash

Answer 6

in cmd window type:

type nul > your_file.txt

This will create 0 bytes in your_file.txt file.

Another way of doing it is by using the echo command:

echo.> your_file.txt

echo. - will create a file with one empty line in it.

Edited on 2019-04-01:

If you need to preserve the content of the file use >> instead of >

>   Creates a new file
>>  Preserves content of the file

Example

type nul >> your_file.txt

Edited on 2020-04-07

You can also use call command.

Calls one batch program from another without stopping the parent batch program. The call command accepts labels as the target of the call.

Example:

call >> your_file.txt