[cgjoker]

Got another...

How can I compare a modification date of a file, plus say 10 days, and if it equals the current date then move the file?

So...

for file in *
do
curdate=`date +%b +%d`
moddate=`ls -l|grep {files modification date}
if ${moddate} <= 1${curdate} + 10`
then
mv ${file} ./directory/.
fi
done

[AGCurry]

Everything you need is provided in the "find" command.

Do "man find" to learn more.

[cgjoker]

Thanks but im not looking for instructions on how to use the find command, im trying to find out how to compare a modified date of a file with a current date. Im not looking for files with a specific modified date.

I would imagine the script would look something like this...

flag=14
cd olddirectory
for file in `ls -l *`
do
if -mtime {$flag} <= `date`
then
mv $file /directory/.
fi

[AGCurry]

In the past I've written my own C programs to do things like this, as I don't believe you can do exactly what you're describing with pure shell scripts.

However, alternatively you can use the touch command to set the mtime of a specific file, and then use test with the -nt or -ot option:

cd olddirectory
touch -m -t 200509011200 ref_file # Sept 1, 2005, noon
for file in *
do
if [ $file -ot ref_file ]
then
mv $file /directory/.
fi
done

[cgjoker]

I see how this would work, but unfortunately it doesn't really apply to what im trying to do.

I will not have the novelty of specifying a particular day because this would run every day. I suppose I can substitute the static date with a unix 'date' command. Is there a way I can say,
if [ $file -ot ref_file "by x number of days"]
do
......

?

thanks for your help with this.
c.

[Squashman]

Been following this thread and I am still confused on what exactly you are trying to do. Do you want to just back up all files every day that are 10 days old and I assume you will just set this up as a cron job.

[cgjoker]

the idea is that ill have a file with a numeric flag as part of the filename, that will always be changing. based on this flag i will mv the file if the file is older than that specific flag value.

so one day the filename may be:

10file.dat

if the file is older than 10 days, move the file.

the next day the filename may be:

7file.dat

if the file is older than 7 days, move the file.

this script would run daily.

so what i was thinking was i could basically say, if a file modification date, plus the flag is less than or equal to the current date then move the file.

to get the flag I was thinking i can just do like a ls into a file then substring (sed) the first 2 characters to get the value of the flag. the problem may be though if there is more than one file... so:

10file1.dat
12filenew.dat
2filewhatever.dat

[cgjoker]

this is something like the script as id imagine it.. obviously not to code.

date= date command to get this syntax for current date(200509011200)
ls * >> filename.dat
for (each line of file) filename.dat
do
flag= (get 1st 2 characters of filename)
rm line
touch -m -t ${date} ref_file
for file in *
do
if [ $file + $flag -ot ref_file ]
then
mv $ file ./directory/$file
fi
done
done

[cgjoker]

i think this may do what i want as well.

ls * >> filename.dat
for (each line in) filename.dat
do
flag= (get 1st 2 char's.)
rm line
for file in `find . -type f -mtime +$flag -name "$flag*.*"`
do
mv "$file" /directory/"$file".dat
done
done

[AGCurry]

Okay. This solution requires the presence of the "stat" command.

other_directory=/whatever/place
now=$(date '+%s') # Current Unix time in seconds

for file in *
do
daysage=$(echo $file | tr -d [:alpha:][:punct:]) #extract number in name
mtime=$(stat -c'%Y' $file) # file's mtime
let seconds_age=$now-$mtime # file age in seconds
let max_seconds=$daysage\*86400 # convert file's max age to seconds
if [ $seconds_age -gt $max_seconds ]
then
mv $file $other_directory
fi
done

I wish indentation was preserved here!

[Squashman]

Originally Posted by AGCurry

I wish indentation was preserved here!

Wrap it in the code tags. [ code ] [ / code ]

Originally Posted by AGCurry

Okay. This solution requires the presence of the "stat" command.

I was thinking the same thing when I first read this thread a couple of days ago or using statftime.

[cgjoker]

excuse my ignorance, but when I attempt to run the code I get an error:
./file.sh[42]: seconds_age=%s-: 0403-057 Syntax error
./file.sh[41]: stat: not found.

Im using Korne shell, and if I man stat it tells me the entry is not found.

Im also guessing the
now=$(date '+%s')
it doesn't like.

[cgjoker]

also, I can figure this out on my own, but I need only the first 2 digits of the filename in case there are other numeric values in the filename.

this should work fine...

echo $file | head -c2

I think ideally though id like the command to get whatever characters are at the beginning of the filename that are numeric... so if I have a filename of 10file.dat the returned value is 10, alternatively, if the filename is 2file.dat, then the returned value is 2.

[AGCurry]

Originally Posted by cgjoker

excuse my ignorance, but when I attempt to run the code I get an error:
./file.sh[42]: seconds_age=%s-: 0403-057 Syntax error
./file.sh[41]: stat: not found.

Im using Korne shell, and if I man stat it tells me the entry is not found.

The stat command is found on some systems, but not all. I have it on my Red Hat system here at work, and I've also found it on other systems. It basically makes available any or all elements of the C "struct stat". The ls command is basically a listing of struct stat elements. If you don't have it, it's a pretty simple C program to write. The syntax error above is because stat - because it's not found - returned nothing.

OR... some versions of ls have an option like:

ls -l --time-style='+%s'

which will present the mtime in Unix epoch time.

echo $file | head -c2

will return the first two LINES of $file, not the first two characters. Use

"cut -c1-2" for the first two characters.

so...

[code]
other_directory=/whatever/place
now=$(date '+%s') # Current Unix time in seconds

ls -g --time-style='+%s' | while read perms links owner size mtime file
do
if [ -f $file ]
then
daysage=$(echo $file | cut -c1-2) #extract first two chars of name
if let $daysage=$daysage+0 > /dev/null # numeric?
then
let seconds_age=$now-$mtime # file age in seconds
let max_seconds=$daysage\*86400 # convert max age to seconds
if [ $seconds_age -gt $max_seconds ]
then
mv $file $other_directory
fi
fi
fi
done
[\code]

[cgjoker]

nope, no dice...

server1:$:/]ls -l --time-style='+%s'
ls: Not a recognized flag: -
ls: Not a recognized flag: -
ls: Not a recognized flag: y
ls: Not a recognized flag: =
ls: Not a recognized flag: +
ls: Not a recognized flag: %
Usage: ls [-1ACFLNRabcdefgilmnopqrstux] [File...]