Timeline for A simple way to update the access time of multiple files

10 events

when toggle format	what		by	license	comment
Jun 16, 2019 at 12:55	history	edited	Jeff Schaller♦	CC BY-SA 4.0	added 3 characters in body
Jun 14, 2019 at 19:40	history	edited	jesse_b	CC BY-SA 4.0	added 589 characters in body
Jun 14, 2019 at 19:37	comment	added	user4556274		If @V-Red want to update only the access time (as per question title), should use `touch -a`. `touch` should modify both the `atime` and the `mtime`, so this would work regardless of which the cleanup routine examines, but `touch -a` might be less intrusive.
Jun 14, 2019 at 19:29	vote	accept	V-Red
Jun 14, 2019 at 19:28	comment	added	jesse_b		@V-Red: No worries, that is the path to the directory you would like to make these changes in. So if the files are in your home directory it would be `/home/v-red/`, etc. You could also specify just `.` to start at the current directory, but make sure you are actually in the correct directory before doing so.
Jun 14, 2019 at 19:26	comment	added	V-Red		Sorry for my ignorance but I'm kind of new to linux systems; what exactly do you mean by ' /path/to/root_dir/ ' Do I have to simply specify the root directory ?
Jun 14, 2019 at 19:22	comment	added	jesse_b		@V-Red: Correct although it will create the file if it doesn't exist.
Jun 14, 2019 at 19:22	history	edited	jesse_b	CC BY-SA 4.0	added 569 characters in body
Jun 14, 2019 at 19:21	comment	added	V-Red		And the touch command definitely doesn't modify the file itself right? Only the metadata?
Jun 14, 2019 at 19:16	history	answered	jesse_b	CC BY-SA 4.0