# FileUtils.touch not consistent with system('touch') **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [October 11, 2006, 10:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fileutils-touch-not-consistent-with-system-touch/71757 "2006-10-11T10:38:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hanholl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/a87d85/32.png) [@hanholl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hanholl)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 10:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fileutils-touch-not-consistent-with-system-touch/71757/1 "2006-10-11T10:38:11Z")
Hi, I have a world-writable file, not owned by me, that I try to touch: -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct 11 10:29 /tmp/file ruby -rfileutils -e ‘FileUtils.touch("/tmp/file")’ /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:1014:in `utime': Operation not permitted - /tmp/file (Errno::EPERM) from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:1014:in`touch’ from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:1012:in `touch’ from -e:1 but: ruby -e ‘system(“touch /tmp/file”)’ succeeds. The reason is that File.utime cannot be called with a NULL argument. Linux (and I assume this is Posix) allows a utime call with NULL if the file is writeable, but to change the time a process must have special privileges. With the current File.utime FileUtils cannot implement this. Cheers, Han H. ---
**Author:** ![hanholl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/a87d85/32.png) [@hanholl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hanholl)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 12:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fileutils-touch-not-consistent-with-system-touch/71757/2 "2006-10-11T12:42:54Z")
Hi, At Wed, 11 Oct 2006 19:08:36 +0900, Nobuyoshi N. wrote in [ruby-talk:219042]: > # Index: lib/fileutils.rb > > RCS file: /pub/cvs/ruby/lib/fileutils.rb,v > retrieving revision 1.73 > diff -U 2 -p -r1.73 fileutils.rb > - > > ``` > raise unless created > > ``` Sorry, should be `if' but not`unless’. ---
**Author:** ![hanholl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/a87d85/32.png) [@hanholl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hanholl)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 12:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fileutils-touch-not-consistent-with-system-touch/71757/3 "2006-10-11T12:10:36Z")
Hi, At Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:37:05 +0900, Han H. wrote in [ruby-talk:219037]: > The reason is that File.utime cannot be called with a NULL argument. > Linux (and I assume this is Posix) allows a utime call with NULL if > the file is writeable, > but to change the time a process must have special privileges. > With the current File.utime FileUtils cannot implement this. What about this? # Index: file.c RCS file: /pub/cvs/ruby/file.c,v retrieving revision 1.253 diff -U 2 -p -r1.253 file.c — file.c 25 Sep 2006 12:25:03 -0000 1.253 +++ file.c 11 Oct 2006 08:53:57 -0000 @@ -1966,11 +1966,14 @@ rb\_file\_s\_utime(int argc, VALUE \*argv) { VALUE atime, mtime, rest; - struct timeval tvp[2]; - struct timeval tvs[2], \*tvp = NULL; long n; - tvp[0] = rb\_time\_timeval(atime); - tvp[1] = rb\_time\_timeval(mtime); - if (!NIL\_P(atime) || !NIL\_P(mtime)) { - tvp = tvs; - tvp[0] = rb\_time\_timeval(atime); - tvp[1] = rb\_time\_timeval(mtime); - } - struct utimbuf utbuf; - struct utimbuf utbuf, \*utp = NULL; - tv = rb\_time\_timeval(atime); - utbuf.actime = tv.tv\_sec; - tv = rb\_time\_timeval(mtime); - utbuf.modtime = tv.tv\_sec; - if (!NIL\_P(atime) || !NIL\_P(mtime)) { - utp = &utbuf; - tv = rb\_time\_timeval(atime); - utp-\>actime = tv.tv\_sec; - tv = rb\_time\_timeval(mtime); - utp-\>modtime = tv.tv\_sec; - } - n = apply2files(utime\_internal, rest, &utbuf); - n = apply2files(utime\_internal, rest, utp); return LONG2FIX(n); } @@ -2924,4 +2930,9 @@ rb\_file\_join(VALUE ary, VALUE sep) } else if (!\*tail) { +#ifdef DOSISH\_DRIVE\_LETTER - ``` if ((tail - name == 2) && has_drive_letter(name)) { ``` - ``` rb_str_buf_cat(result, ".", 1); ``` - ``` } ``` # +#endif rb\_str\_buf\_append(result, sep); } Index: lib/fileutils.rb RCS file: /pub/cvs/ruby/lib/fileutils.rb,v retrieving revision 1.73 diff -U 2 -p -r1.73 fileutils.rb — lib/fileutils.rb 9 Oct 2006 14:41:24 -0000 1.73 +++ lib/fileutils.rb 11 Oct 2006 09:02:41 -0000 @@ -1008,14 +1008,21 @@ module FileUtils fu\_check\_options options, OPT\_TABLE[‘touch’] list = fu\_list(list) - fu\_output\_message “touch #{list.join ’ '}” if options[:verbose] - if options[:verbose] - ``` fu_output_message "touch #{options[:nocreate] ? ' -c' : ``` ‘’}#{options[:mtime] ? options[:mtime].strftime(’ -t %Y%m%d%H%M.%S’) : ‘’}#{list.join ’ '}" - end return if options[:noop] - t = Time.now - created = nocreate = options[:nocreate] - t = options[:mtime] list.each do |path| - ``` created = nocreate begin File.utime(t, t, path) rescue Errno::ENOENT ``` - ``` raise unless created File.open(path, 'a') { ; } ``` - ``` created = true ``` - ``` retry if t end ``` end @@ -1023,5 +1030,5 @@ module FileUtils module\_function :touch - OPT\_TABLE[‘touch’] = [:noop, :verbose] - OPT\_TABLE[‘touch’] = [:noop, :verbose, :mtime, :nocreate] ---
**Author:** ![hanholl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/a87d85/32.png) [@hanholl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hanholl)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fileutils-touch-not-consistent-with-system-touch/71757/4 "2006-10-11T21:15:06Z")
Hi, In mail “Re: FileUtils.touch not consistent with system(‘touch’)” “Nobuyoshi N.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > The reason is that File.utime cannot be called with a NULL argument. > > Linux (and I assume this is Posix) allows a utime call with NULL if > > the file is writeable, > > but to change the time a process must have special privileges. > > With the current File.utime FileUtils cannot implement this. > > What about this? > Index: lib/fileutils.rb This part seems nice, please commit it after File.utime patch is committed. Best Regards, Minero A. ---
**Author:** ![hanholl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/a87d85/32.png) [@hanholl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hanholl)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2006, 7:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fileutils-touch-not-consistent-with-system-touch/71757/5 "2006-10-12T07:38:32Z")
Hi, At Wed, 11 Oct 2006 19:08:36 +0900, Nobuyoshi N. wrote in [ruby-talk:219042]: > > Linux (and I assume this is Posix) allows a utime call with NULL if > > the file is writeable, rb\_w32\_utime() didn’t support it. I’m not sure it should be LocalFileTime or not. # Index: win32/win32.c RCS file: /pub/cvs/ruby/win32/win32.c,v retrieving revision 1.195 diff -U 2 -p -r1.195 win32.c — win32/win32.c 12 Aug 2006 06:56:09 -0000 1.195 +++ win32/win32.c 12 Oct 2006 04:50:36 -0000 @@ -4118,9 +4118,15 @@ rb\_w32\_utime(const char \*path, const str } - if (unixtime\_to\_filetime(times-\>actime, &atime)) { - return -1; - if (times) { - if (unixtime\_to\_filetime(times-\>actime, &atime)) { - ``` return -1; ``` - } - if (unixtime\_to\_filetime(times-\>modtime, &mtime)) { - ``` return -1; ``` - } } - if (unixtime\_to\_filetime(times-\>modtime, &mtime)) { - return -1; - else { - GetSystemTimeAsFileTime(&atime); - mtime = atime; }