old_contents: 
  import os.path
  import errno
  
  
  def touch(path, times=None):
      """Mimics the behavior of the `touch` UNIX command line tool, to create
      empty files.
      """
  
      with open(path):
          os.utime(path, times)
  
  
  def mkdir_p(path):
      """Mimics the behavior of the `mkdir -p` UNIX command line took, creating
      directories recursively, ignoring them if they already exist.
      """
  
      try:
          os.makedirs(path)
      except OSError, e:
          if e.errno != errno.EEXIST:
              raise
  
new_contents: 
  import os.path
  import errno
  
  
  def touch(path, times=None):
      """Mimics the behavior of the `touch` UNIX command line tool, to create
      empty files.
      """
  
      with open(path, "a"):
          os.utime(path, times)
  
  
  def mkdir_p(path):
      """Mimics the behavior of the `mkdir -p` UNIX command line took, creating
      directories recursively, ignoring them if they already exist.
      """
  
      try:
          os.makedirs(path)
      except OSError, e:
          if e.errno != errno.EEXIST:
              raise
  
subject: Handle touching files that don't yet exist