Gain insights into the command-line interface, delve into navigating file systems, creating scripts, and automating tasks to enhance productivity and control your computer efficiently.

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In this course, you will get the chance to explore the command-line interface (CLI), starting with basics like navigating file systems and working with directories and files. Then, you will use those building blocks to tackle more advanced features and tasks within the CLI. You will also learn to turn basic commands into executable scripts and easily automate common tasks. This course will empower you to put the interface to work, take complete control of your computer, and hack your way to productivity.

Harnessing the Power of the Command-Line Interface

In [Creating and Reading Files](https://www.educative.io/courses/harnessing-power-command-line-interface/creating-and-reading-files), we learned how to use the `echo` command and redirection to create files. This is one of many ways to create files on the command line. Let’s look at a few alternatives.

# The `touch` command

If we only need to create an empty file, we can use the `touch` command. This command is designed to update the timestamp of a file. It’s common for programs to watch a file for changes and then react to them by executing a process. For example, we might have a process that runs tests whenever a file changes, but we don’t actually want to open the file and make a change. We can use `touch` to modify the file without actually changing the contents. This would then trigger the program or process monitoring the file.

However, if the specified file doesn’t exist, the `touch` command creates the file. This makes `touch` a very popular tool for creating files quickly.

```
$ touch file.txt
```

We verify that it exists by using the `ls -lh` command:

```
$ ls -lh file.txt
```


Learn how to create files using the touch command.


Introduction

Creating an Ubuntu Virtual Machine with VirtualBox

Navigating the Filesystem

Working with Files and Directories

Streams Of Text

The Shell and Environment

Running and Managing Programs

Networking Tools

Automation

Additional Programs

Conclusion

Creating Files

The `touch` command

Creating Files

The touch command

The `touch` command