File timestamp

[whegge]

How do I get the most recent file from directory? I am trying to automate a log analyzer program. The log file names are very cryptic, qmail log files if you wish to know, so I cannot get the proper file by name; so, I want to find it by timestamp. Thanks in advance for the help.

Wes

 

[fishiface]

stat()

returns a lot of info about a file given either a path or a handle.

The most recent file in a directory would be given by

sub latest {
        my $dir = $_[0];
        opendir( DIR, $dir ) or die "$0: opendir $dir: $!";
        my( $time, $file );
        while( $_ = readdir(DIR) ) {
             next if ( /\.{1,2}/ ); # avoid . & ..
             my $tstamp = ( stat($_) )[9]; # mtime, 8=atime, 10=ctime
             next unless $time < $tstamp;
             $file = $_;
             $time= $tstamp;
        }
        return $file;
}

Good luck,



fish

P.S. Unless you really like qmail, have a look at exim.

"As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as
easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered.
I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life
from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs."
--Maurice Wilk

 

[TopMach]

fishiface's regex to skip "." and ".." dir files is broken. It skips ANY files that has a "." or ".." in it, effectively eliminating most files and not just the dir files. The regex needs anchors; /^\.\.?$/

sub latest ($) {
my $dir = shift;
opendir DIR, $dir or die "$0: Can't opendir $dir: $!";
my($time, $file);
for (readdir(DIR)) {
next if /^\.\.?$/;
next if (my $tstamp = (stat$_)[9]) < $time;
$file = $_;
$time= $tstamp;
}
return $file;
}

 

[whegge]

Thanks for the quick responses. I will try it out this evening. Would love to do it know but a server is down - priorities.

Thanks again,
Wes Hegge
SignalBlast.Com, Inc.

 

[whegge]

Finally got a chance to try the function. It seems to be working but not giving me what I need. What is happening is the log file is named @4000... (tai64n date stamp). When I do an 'ls -l' I can see the file and it has a date associated with it. When I run the program and ask it to print out the date it does not show one. Here is how I have to code right now:

#!/usr/bin/perl

$latestfile = latest(&quot;/var/log/qmail&quot;

print &quot;$latestfile\n&quot;;

sub latest {
my $dir = $_[0];
opendir(DIR, $dir) or die &quot;$0: opendir $dir: $!&quot;;
my($time, $file);
while ($_ = readdir(DIR) ) {
next if ( /^\.\.?$/ );
my $tstamp = ( stat($_) )[9];
print &quot;$_\t$tstamp\n&quot;;
}
return $file;
}

What I get is a list of filenames but no timestamp. I have tried atime, mtime and ctime with 'stat'. They all return no timestamp. Am I missing something simple here?

 

[PaulTEG]

r u on a windoze system?
Paul

It's important in life to always strike a happy medium, so if you see someone with a crystal ball, and a smile on their face ...

 

[whegge]

No, Linux, Red Hat.

 

[PaulTEG]

#!/usr/bin/perl

$latestfile = latest("/var/log/qmail");

print "$latestfile\n";

sub latest {
    my $dir = $_[0];
    opendir(DIR, $dir) or die "$0: opendir $dir: $!";
    my($time, $file);
    while ($_ = readdir(DIR) ) {
        next if ( /^\.\.?$/ );        
        #my $tstamp = ( stat($_) )[9];     
        my @filedata = stat($_);
        $tstamp = $filedata[9];
        print "$_\t$tstamp\n";
    }
    return $file;
}

This is giving a time string, but it won't return the file name $file, because its not being assigned.

It's only giving the timestring for three files, what's your regex matching on?

HTH
Paul

It's important in life to always strike a happy medium, so if you see someone with a crystal ball, and a smile on their face ...

 

[PaulTEG]

Scratch that,
this is working
#!/usr/bin/perl

$latestfile = latest(&quot;/home/httpd/cgi-bin&quot;

print &quot;$latestfile\n&quot;;

sub latest {
my $dir = $_[0];
opendir(DIR, $dir) or die &quot;$0: opendir $dir: $!&quot;;
my($time, $file);
while ($_ = readdir(DIR) ) {
next if ( /^\.\.?$/ );
#my $tstamp = ( stat($_) )[9];
my @filedata = stat;$tstamp = $filedata[9];#now a tidy one liner
print &quot;$_\t$tstamp\n&quot;;
}
return $file;
}
HTH
Paul