stroke - Dynamically changing modification, access, and change time components

Usage: stroke [OPTION]... ARGUMENT FILE...
   or: stroke [OPTION]... FILE...

Meaning of ARGUMENT may differ according to OPTION set.

      Option:   -s             ARGUMENT = STAMP
                -r or -b       ARGUMENT = FILE
                otherwise      ARGUMENT = MODIFIERS

Options:
      -s, -stamp         Treat ARGUMENT as a STAMP (see below).
      -r, -reference     Treat ARGUMENT as a reference file and set FILE's
                          access, modification, (and change) time to that of
                          reference.
      -l, -symlinks      If FILE or reference file (in case of `-r') refer
                          to a symbolic link, read access, modification and
                          change time from that link. Also, if FILE refers
                          to a symbolic link, alter that link's modification,
                          access, (and change) time.
      -c, -ctime         Do also apply change time alterations. This might
                          require root privileges.
      -p, -preserve      When altering modification or access time, prevent
                          change time from being implicitly altered too.
                          Root privileges might be required.
      -i, -info          Output information about a file's access, change,
                          and modification time.
      -b, -batch         Treat ARGUMENT as a batch file to read modifier
                          expressions from.
      -f, -force         Do not perform any date or time validations.
      -v, -verbose       Generate more verbose output.
      -q, -quiet         Do not generate any output, not even for errors;
                          only return value indicates exit status.
      -h, -help          Print this help text
      -version           Print program information

Modifers:
      MODIFIERS is a `,' or `;' separated list of modifier EXPRESSIONs:

                     EXPRESSION [,|; EXPRESSION]...

      An EXPRESSION is a simple or chained assignment of the form:

         IDENTIFIER [= IDENTIFIER]... = VALUE | IDENTIFIER | MODULATOR

      All IDENTIFIERs of an EXPRESSION are evaluated as if they were
       singly assigned the right-most statement.

      A VALUE is a positive integer value that is appropriate for an
       assignment's IDENTIFIER as it is.

      There are IDENTIFIERs for all components of access, modification,
       and change time:
                   [mac]Y     Year             [mac]h     Hour
                   [mac]M     Month            [mac]m     Minute
                   [mac]D     Day              [mac]s     Second
                   [mac]l     Dst (0..2)

      MODULATORs conveniently increment or decrement an IDENTIFIER's
      value:
                  +n     Increment by n       ++     Increment by 1
                  -n     Decrement by n       --     Decrement by 1

      If MODIFIERS is `-', modifier expressions shall be read from stdin.

Time stamps:
      STAMP must be supplied as ARGUMENT if `-s, -stamp' is given. STAMP
      is of the form:

                  [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss][:SELECTOR]

      SELECTOR specifies whether access time, modification time, change time
       or any of those combined should be altered using STAMP.
       A SELECTOR is of the form: a, m, c (or any unique combination thereof).
       If not given as part of STAMP, SELECTOR defaults to m.

Examples:
       stroke mY=aY=2008,mm=+2,am=mm <file>
       stroke -c cY=mY,cM=mM,cD=mD <file>

Consult the manual page `stroke (1)' for more detailed information and
 invocation examples.


Please help by reporting bugs to <soeren.wellhoefer@gmx.net>.