touch: cannot touch file: No such file or directory

Question

I am getting the error:

touch: cannot touch `/opt/tsrm/compliance/cme/log/20121207.log`: No such file or directory

on the touch command: touch $LOGFILE

I also checked the link: touch: cannot touch `foo': No such file or directory, But I didn't understand the answer.

Note: I was also getting mkdir: cannot create directory; I fixed this by adding the -p option.

Could this be something with the version of Linux I am working in?

explanation pretty simple, if the folder your were in was destroy when you invoke touch then it fails. — Kiwy, Apr 05 '18 at 08:01

score 29 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 07 '12 at 07:57

29

You do not have the path that holds the file:

/opt/tsrm/compliance/cme/log/

That's where the error come from.

answered Dec 07 '12 at 07:57

daisy

3

I would call that a *directory* not a path – Basile Starynkevitch Oct 22 '17 at 12:01
`mkdir -p /opt/tsrm/compliance/cme/log` – Sandburg Jun 17 '22 at 10:00

score 9 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 22 '17 at 13:16

9

As silly as this reply sounds, other than missing directory, there could be string delimiter surrounding the value in $LOGFILE

Working:

LOGFILE=/stuff/more_stuff/stuff.file
touch $LOGFILE

Not Working:

LOGFILE="/stuff/more_stuff/stuff.file"
touch $LOGFILE

Some Linux distro have the quirk above, so be careful ;)

edited Oct 22 '17 at 13:16

Thomas

answered Oct 22 '17 at 11:59

Dwi C Taniel

seems this is what is causing problem on GitLab CI – damdafayton Feb 21 '23 at 12:40

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 07 '12 at 07:57

9

Sounds like you misspelled the path. For example, this folder /stuff/more_stuff does not exist. This gives me the result:

user@linux:~ $ touch /stuff/more_stuff/stuff.file
touch: cannot touch `/stuff/more_stuff/stuff.file': No such file or directory

Both /stuff and /stuff/more_stuff need to exist in order for touch to work.

answered Dec 07 '12 at 07:57

Kotte

1

In my case I am trying to use `touch /etc/resolv.conf` and it says `touch: cannot touch '/etc/resolv.conf': No such file or directory`. `/etc` definitely does exist. – Aaron Franke Mar 09 '18 at 01:24
2

Have you checked if `resolv.conf` is a symlink to a file that doesn't exist? – Kotte Mar 09 '18 at 10:34

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 07 '12 at 10:48

6

Yes there might be chances of miss typo or directory not exists .

LOGFILE="/opt/tsrm/compliance/cme/log/20121207.log"
LOG_DIR=`dirname $LOGFILE`
[ ! -d $LOG_DIR ] && mkdir -p $LOG_DIR
touch $LOGFILE

answered Dec 07 '12 at 10:48

Rahul Patil

4 Answers4