[Tutor] Is there a file creator?

[Christian Tismer]

Gus Tabares wrote:
> SA,
> 
> 	I think when you open a file in write mode, if the file doesn't
> already exists, it will be created, hence, it will start empty. Hope this
> helps...
> 
> 
> Gus
> 
> On Fri, 6 Sep 2002, S A wrote:
> 
> 
>>Is there a function or module that creates an empty file like the unix command "touch" does?

Well, a real equivalent of "touch" would have to set the
time stamp of an existing file to now, without changing
the file. Opening in write mode would clear it.
For that purpose, os.utime seems to be appropriate, since
it appears to work, whether the file is opened or not.

something like (not tested):

import os, time

def touch(path):
   if os.path.exists(path):
     t = time.time()
     os.utime(path, (t, t) )
   else:
     file(path, 'w').close()

ciao - chris

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