GNU bug report logs - #27942
Bug regarding "touch" command

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Message #13 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: L A Walsh <coreutils <at> tlinx.org>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Cc: eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu, yalavarthi.pavankumar.123 <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#27942: Bug regarding "touch" command
Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2017 01:52:40 -0700

Paul Eggert wrote:
> pavan kumar yalavarthi wrote:
>> " *touch  -* " is not working i.e., file named " - " is not being 
>> created
>
> It's not a bug. In coreutils, 'touch -' is documented to touch the 
> standard output file, not a file named '-'. The POSIX specification 
> for 'touch' allows either the coreutils behavior or the other

Thought it was a bit humorous, the bit about touching ... "stdout"?
or...  as in "/dev/stdout"?   Definitely not in my man page for touch,
new change?  I do see it in "touch --help", so seems relatively new.

What is touched ?  /dev/stdout? 

"Touching the 'file' associated with stdout"? 

How would I (or someone) use it?  Was/is there a use case
that supported or needed the new feature?

Curious: partially because I was/am amused and see no clue as to how
to use such a feature.

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