Simulate touch command with Java

Question

I want to change modification timestamp of a binary file. What is the best way for doing this?

Would opening and closing the file be a good option? (I require a solution

Answer 1

This question only mentions updating the timestamp, but I thought I'd put this in here anyways. I was looking for touch like in Unix which will also create a file if it doesn't exist.

For anyone using Apache Commons, there's FileUtils.touch(File file) that does just that.

Here's the source from (inlined openInputStream(File f)):

public static void touch(final File file) throws IOException {
    if (file.exists()) {
        if (file.isDirectory()) {
            throw new IOException("File '" + file + "' exists but is a directory");
        }
        if (file.canWrite() == false) {
            throw new IOException("File '" + file + "' cannot be written to");
        }
    } else {
        final File parent = file.getParentFile();
        if (parent != null) {
            if (!parent.mkdirs() && !parent.isDirectory()) {
                throw new IOException("Directory '" + parent + "' could not be created");
            }
        }
        final OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(file);
        IOUtils.closeQuietly(out);
    }
    final boolean success = file.setLastModified(System.currentTimeMillis());
    if (!success) {
        throw new IOException("Unable to set the last modification time for " + file);
    }
}