Creating files and updating the timestamp
Now that we understand the filesystem, inodes, and hard links, we'll learn how to create files by writing our own version of touch in C. We have already started writing a version of touch in Chapter 4, Handling Errors in Your Programs, where we learned about error handling. We will continue using the latest version of that program, which we named simple-touch-v7.c. The real version of touch updates the modification and access timestamp of a file if the file exists. In this recipe, we'll add that feature to our new version.
Getting ready
Everything you'll need for this recipe is listed in the Technical requirements section for this chapter. Although we will add on the latest version of simple-touch, we'll write the entire code in this recipe. But for complete comprehension of the program, it is wise to read through Chapter 4, Handling Errors in Your Programs, first.
How to do it…
In this eighth version...
