--- src/touch.c.bak	Sat Mar 17 10:27:41 2001
+++ src/touch.c	Fri Sep  7 13:50:13 2001
@@ -75,6 +75,9 @@
 /* (-t) If nonzero, date supplied on command line in POSIX format. */
 static int posix_date;
 
+/* (-x) If nonzero, files are only created if they do not already exist. */
+static int create_if_noexist;
+
 /* If nonzero, the only thing we have to do is change both the
    modification and access time to the current time, so we don't
    have to own the file, just be able to read and write it.
@@ -105,6 +108,7 @@
   {"date", required_argument, 0, 'd'},
   {"file", required_argument, 0, 'r'}, /* FIXME: phase out --file */
   {"reference", required_argument, 0, 'r'},
+  {"create-if-noexist", no_argument, 0, 'x'},
   {GETOPT_HELP_OPTION_DECL},
   {GETOPT_VERSION_OPTION_DECL},
   {0, 0, 0, 0}
@@ -136,8 +140,16 @@
   if (! no_create)
     {
       /* Try to open FILE, creating it if necessary.  */
-      fd = open (file, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_NONBLOCK | O_NOCTTY,
-		 S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IWGRP | S_IROTH | S_IWOTH);
+      if (create_if_noexist) {
+	fd = open (file, O_EXCL | O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_NONBLOCK | O_NOCTTY,
+		   S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IWGRP | S_IROTH | S_IWOTH);
+
+	if (fd == -1)
+	  return fd;
+      } else
+	fd = open (file, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_NONBLOCK | O_NOCTTY,
+		   S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IWGRP | S_IROTH | S_IWOTH);
+
       if (fd == -1)
 	open_errno = errno;
     }
@@ -198,9 +210,12 @@
 
   if (status)
     {
-      if (open_errno)
-	error (0, open_errno, _("creating %s"), quote (file));
-      else
+      if (open_errno) {
+	if (create_if_noexist)
+	  error (0, open_errno, _("creating %s (exists)"), quote (file));
+	else
+	  error (0, open_errno, _("creating %s"), quote (file));
+      } else
 	error (0, errno, _("setting times of %s"), quote (file));
       return 1;
     }
@@ -233,6 +248,7 @@
                            modify mtime (same as -m)\n\
       --help             display this help and exit\n\
       --version          output version information and exit\n\
+  -x, --create-if-noexist only create the file if it didn't exist already\n\
 \n\
 Note that the three time-date formats recognized for the -d and -t options\n\
 and for the obsolescent argument are all different.\n\
@@ -257,9 +273,10 @@
   atexit (close_stdout);
 
   change_times = no_create = use_ref = posix_date = flexible_date = 0;
+  create_if_noexist = 0;
   newtime = (time_t) -1;
 
-  while ((c = getopt_long (argc, argv, "acd:fmr:t:", longopts, NULL)) != -1)
+  while ((c = getopt_long (argc, argv, "acd:fmr:t:x", longopts, NULL)) != -1)
     {
       switch (c)
 	{
@@ -311,6 +328,10 @@
 	case_GETOPT_HELP_CHAR;
 
 	case_GETOPT_VERSION_CHAR (PROGRAM_NAME, AUTHORS);
+
+	case 'x':
+	  create_if_noexist++;	  
+	  break;
 
 	default:
 	  usage (1);