From: Bret Pettichord <bpettichord@...>
Date: 2006-11-15T08:40:05+09:00
Subject: touch

I need to "touch" a file from my ruby script. (This is a unix-based
command that updates the timestamp on a file, creating it, if it
doesn't already exist.) I'm running on Windows. A collegue found a port
of "touch" and installed it and called it using "system", but i would
rather see a solution that requires less installation.

I am currently using the following code:

class File
   def self.touch(filename)
      File.open(filename, 'a'){|f| f.puts ' '}
   end
end

This implementation is good enough for my present needs (touching an
xml file), but it has obvious side effects that could be a problem in
other contexts.

I did find a touch command in Ruby in the ptools package at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ruby-miscutils/ but it did not work.
(It zeroed the file it touched!)

Any suggestions for a better "touch" in Ruby?

Bret