New

A simple command-line utility for creating folders and files.

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Introduction

Windows CMD does not provide a simple built-in command equivalent to touch. New is a small cross-platform utility that creates files and directories with support for templates, timestamps, and inline content.

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Features

• Create one or more folders
• Create one or more files
• Automatically create parent directories
• Optional overwrite support
• Confirmation prompt before overwriting
• Text and binary file creation
• Copy file timestamps from reference files
• Custom access/modified time support
• Read from template files or stdin
• Write inline content to files
• Verbose and quiet output modes

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Installation

From GitHub release

Download the release archive, extract, and run from: Latest release page

From source

git clone https://github.com/Hoang-Long2012/new.git
cd new/src
python new.py

Build executable

pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller --onefile --clean --optimize 2 new.py

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Usage

Create folders

new Project Docs Assets

or

new -d Project Docs Assets

Result:

Project/
Docs/
Assets/

Create files

new -f README.md LICENSE src/main.py

Result:

README.md
LICENSE
src/
└── main.py

Create folders and files together

new src tests docs -f README.md LICENSE src/main.py tests/test_main.py

Result:

.
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── docs/
├── src/
│   └── main.py
└── tests/
    └── test_main.py

Create binary files

new -f image.bin data.bin -b

Set encoding

new -f notes.txt -e utf-8

Overwrite existing files/folders

new Project -f README.md -o

Overwrite without confirmation

new Project -f README.md -o -y

Write content to file

Inline text

new -f hello.txt -w "Hello world"

From stdin

new -f input.txt -w

From pipeline

echo Hello | new -f hello.txt -w

Use template files

new -f main.py -T template1.txt template2.txt

Timestamp control

Copy access time and modified time from a reference FILE

new -f file.txt -r reference.txt

Set access and modified time

new -f file.txt -a 1234.56 -m 1234.56

Disable timestamp update on existing files

new -f file.txt -c

Output mode

Verbose mode

new Project -v

Quiet mode

new Project -q

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Options

• -d, --directory: Create folders
• -f, --file: Create files
• -b, --byte: Binary mode
• -e, --encoding: File encoding
• -o, --overwrite: Overwrite existing
• -y, --yes: Skip confirmation
• -w, --write: Write content to file
• -T, --template: Copy template content
• -r, --reference: Copy timestamps from file
• -a, --access-time: Set access time
• -m, --modified-time: Set modified time
• -t, --time: Set both timestamps
• -c, --no-change-timestamp: Do not update timestamps on existing files
• -v, --verbose: Detailed logs
• -q, --quiet: Minimal output
• -V, --version: Show version
• -h, --help: Show help

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Examples

Create an empty Python file

new -f main.py

Python project skeleton

new src tests docs -f README.md LICENSE src/main.py tests/test_main.py

Web project skeleton

new css js images -f index.html css/style.css js/app.js

Auto-create nested directories

new -f project/src/main.py

Result:

project/
└── src/
    └── main.py

Create a file with content

new -f hello.txt -w "Hello world"

Create a file from stdin

new -f hello.txt -w

Copy content from templates

new -f main.py -T header.txt body.txt

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Note

• Missing parent directories are created automatically.
• Any encoding supported by Python may be used.
  Examples:
• utf-8
• utf-8-sig
• utf-16
• cp1252
• cp1258
• latin-1
• Default encoding is utf-8.
• When writing inline, you can use unicode escapes like \n, \t, etc to write some special characters like line breaks, tabs, etc. If the escape is not valid, New will write the original string to the file.
• You can read some popular escapes from
  Escape Sequences
• When the program is waiting for input from stdin you can press Ctrl+Z then Enter on Windows or Control+D on Linux/MacOS to finish, Ctrl+C to cancel.
• The content of all template files is copied directly into the created file.
• Template files are processed in the order specified.
• When a template file is -, it is interpreted as stdin.
• To pass a literal file named -, use ./- (Linux/macOS) or .\- (Windows).
• You can use wildcard patterns when specifying template files.
• The source code is cross-platform and should work on Windows, Linux and macOS.
• Currently only Windows binaries are officially provided.

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Escape Sequences

When using -w, --write New attempts to decode common escape sequences.
• Escape sequences are decoded using Python's unicode_escape codec.

Escape	Meaning
\n	New line
\r	Carriage return
\t	Horizontal tab
\v	Vertical tab
\b	Backspace
\f	Form feed
\a	Bell
\\	Backslash
\'	Single quote
\"	Double quote
\xNN	Hexadecimal byte
\uNNNN	Unicode character
\UNNNNNNNN	Unicode character
\N{UNICODE NAME}	Unicode character
\{OCTAL}	Unicode character

Examples:

new -f hello.txt -w "Hello\nWorld"

Produces:

Hello
World

new -f tab.txt -w "Name\tValue"

Produces:

Name    Value

new -f emoji.txt -w "\u2764"

Produces:

❤

new -f symbol.txt -w "\N{BLACK HEART SUIT}"

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Changelog

See changelog from: CHANGELOG.md

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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Contribution

If you'd like to contribute, feel free to submit a pull request.
If you'd like to report a bug or request a feature, please open an issue.

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Copyright (c) 2026 Hoang-Long2012