nixCraft

warren · #1 (**permalink**) 03-29-2006, 02:52 PM

I have here a simple question.

I have a file named "log.txt"and the date modified is Mar 29, 2006 16:55
I am planning to rename/create link of "log.txt" to "Mar 29, 2006 1655.txt"
The problem is how can I get that string.

Sol. 1
-bash-3.00# stat --format=%y log.txt
2006-03-29 16:55:41.571766000 +0800
But the problem is how can I convert that to string "Mar 29, 2006 1655"

Sol 2.
-bash-3.00# ls -l --time-style="+%b %e, %Y %k%M" log.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 0 Mar 29, 2006 1655 log.txt
I have that string but the problem is how can I filter that string.

Thanks in advance for any help

warren

nixcraft · #2 (**permalink**) 03-29-2006, 03:20 PM

Both stat and ls -l are not suitable for this job. Use date command formatting.

Code:

echo $(date +"%b-%d-%y").log.txt

More examples

Code:

NOW=$(date +"%b-%d-%y")
cp log.txt "$NOW.log.txt"
ls *.txt

See our article Creating report/log file names with date in filename for more info http://www.cyberciti.biz/nixcraft/vi...-reportlog.php

warren · #3 (**permalink**) 03-29-2006, 04:29 PM

thanks for this great idea.
but sad to say that it might not really fit into what i'm planning
the "date" command will get the current time and append it to the filename prior to creating and in my case the files are already created.

There is a third party software that will create log1.txt, log2.txt, and so on and so forth and in no way I can change that and if I change that, the application will break.
I'm planning to create a link between that log files to another file where its filename equal to its modified date. In this case it much easier to tell which log I want to look.

Anyway you have given me a good idea. I'll look into the application if I can put this as an arguement. By the time the application creates the log file at the same time another log file is created but with the date as its prefix.
thanks.....

nixcraft · #4 (**permalink**) 03-29-2006, 04:51 PM

My bad I did not read it your request correctly. Any ways here is the solution

Code:

ls -l --time-style="+%b %e, %Y %k%M" log.txt  | awk '{ print $6"-"$7"-"$8 }' | sed -e 's/,//g'

And here is what you need to do at a shell prompt:

Code:

NOW=$(ls -l --time-style="+%b %e, %Y %k%M" log.txt  | awk '{ print $6"-"$7"-"$8 }' | sed -e 's/,//g')
cp log.txt $NOW.log.txt
ls *.txt

Or better put in script (vi script.sh) :

Code:

#!/bin/bash
FILE=$1
NOW=$(ls -l --time-style="+%b %e, %Y %k%M" $FILE  | awk '{ print $6"-"$7"-"$8 }' | sed -e 's/,//g')
cp $FILE "$NOW.$FILE"
echo "File $FILE == $NOW.$FILE"

Run script as follows:

Code:

chmod +x script.sh
./script.sh file.txt
./script.sh log.txt

Enjoy!

warren · #5 (**permalink**) 03-30-2006, 12:04 PM

You got it! thank you so much.
I should have study awk. After some basic courses of awk, i've arrived to something like this:

ln -s log0.txt "`ls -ld --time-style="+%b %e, %Y %k%M%S" log0.txt | awk '{ print $6" "$7" "$8" "$9}'`"

the output would be:
Mar 30, 2006 122104

thanks....

rockdalinux · #6 (**permalink**) 03-30-2006, 01:11 PM

LOL @ nixcraft, you always miss the bus first time...

Awk and sed both are real nifty tools. In addition, one can only master them by observing code like this

PS: nixCraft. Btw your Cyborg rocks

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How can I rename a file by its date?

How can I rename a file by its date?

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