copy file question

[FairbanksF]

Our IT auditors would like us to start backing up the /var/log/up2date.log files on a weekly basis. Does anyone know if there is a command that will allow me to copy a file to another directory AND add a timestamp in the file name. So that the file being copied would be called up2dateDD/MM/YY.log?

Thanks!

 

[elgrandeperro]

logrotate (confs in /etc/logrotate.d) probably can be changed to accomodate this. BTW, you probably don't want to use '/' in the name because that is different directory!

 

[BadBigBen]

or do a CHRON job, that does it for you...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[QatQat]

an entry in /etc/crontab like this will do

30 10 * * 0 root cat /var/log/up2date.log > /some_directory/"`date +%Y%m%d_%H`_up2date.log"

ths above command will copy the up2date.log file every sunday at 10:30 and will be executed as root.

QatQat


If I could have sex each time I reboot my server, I would definitely prefer Windoz over Linux!

 

[QatQat]

Sorry, i got it out of a similar script on my server. you may want to remove the hour (_%H) part from the script.

30 10 * * 0 root cat /var/log/up2date.log > /some_directory/"`date +%Y%m%d`_up2date.log"

QatQat

If I could have sex each time I reboot my server, I would definitely prefer Windoz over Linux!

 

[KenCunningham]

Not sure if this is the case with Linux, but on Solaris, cron takes exception to the % unless it's escaped, like:

`/usr/bin/date +\%d-\%b-\%y`

I want to be good, is that not enough?

 

[QatQat]

Yep you are right, it needs escaping.

Thanks for the correction.


QatQat

If I could have sex each time I reboot my server, I would definitely prefer Windoz over Linux!

 

[FairbanksF]

Perfect, just what I was looking for guys. Thanks for the great replies. So if I edit my cron it would look something like this...?

30 10 * * 0 root cat /var/log/up2date.log > /tmp/"`/usr/bin/date +\%Y-\%m-\%d_`_up2date.log"

I understand that cron will have issues with % but I'm not sure what you mean by "escaped".

Thanks again!

 

[FairbanksF]

No worries, I'll just create a script file and point cron to kick it off. Thanks for all your help!

 

[KenCunningham]

Just to clarify - 'Escaped' means an insert which instructs the command interpreter to treat the next character as a literal, ie with no 'special meaning' as % does have in cron otherwise. In this (and many others), the \ is the 'escape' character.

I want to be good, is that not enough?