moving file before a certain time 4

[sandeepmur]

Hi,

I need to move a number of files from the current dir to another directory before a certain date & time..

thnx,

 

[KenCunningham]

man find

 

[sandeepmur]

I tried using find and piping it to mv command but not yet getting there..

Want to do something like this:

xxxxxxxxx 12-03-2004 10:29:54 abcd.job
xxxxxxxxx 12-03-2004 10:39:54 abde.job
xxxxxxxxx 12-03-2004 10:42:54 ab23cdf.job

Now move all the files before 12-03-2004 10:42:10 to another directory..

thnx

 

[chipperMDW]

man xargs

 

[chipperMDW]

Actually, on second thought, [tt]xargs[/tt] won't work too well for [tt]mv[/tt] unless you have GNU [tt]mv[/tt]. If you do, look at the man page for [tt]mv[/tt] and pay attention to the [tt]--target-directory[/tt] option.

Otherwise, you might try something like

mv `find -whatever` target-dir

but that runs the risk of overrunning the command line length on some systems.

If that's the case, try

find -whatever |
while read file
do
    mv "$file" target-dir
done

That'll be slower, and you might have to fiddle with the IFS variable if your filenames contain spaces or other weird characters.

 

[sandeepmur]

hi,

But how I find the files older than say 2 hours ago ?? the Find -mtime option only provides for days option.. I have Xargs available but not sure how to use it..

thnx

 

[hoinz]

Look at -newer option of find command;
you may have to create a suitable file using touch command.

 

[KenCunningham]

Thread80-514483 should help.

 

[sandeepmur]

I need to supply a file name with the -newer command..

Isnt there any simpler way to going around this ?

thnx

 

[KenCunningham]

I need to supply a file name with the -newer command"

Yes. I don't really see the problem, isn't this simple enough?

 

[sandeepmur]

not sure if i am posing the question right..

I need to find all files based on a certain date-time and not on name of the files..

The -newer commmand asks for a file name but I dont hv one to give...

hope I made my point..

tia

 

[hoinz]

The -newer commmand asks for a file name but I dont hv one to give...
But it's so easy to have one ...
Did you read the man pages for touch?

 

[KenCunningham]

Or the thread mentioned above?

 

[sandeepmur]

hi again,

sorry, missed seeing the post on the related Thread..

Ok I created a touch file like the fwg:

touch 2004031411 /home/etbc01/temp/tempdate.txt

Executed the find command:

find . ! -newer /home/etbc01/temp/tempdate.txt -type f
The command executed fine but the tempdate.txt remains empty ! why is this ?

Also, can I do the fwg:

mv `find . ! -newer /home/etbc01/temp/tempdate.txt -type f` /home/etbc01/temp/

Thnx,

 

[hoinz]

Maybe Ken is also answering just now, but here is my text:

The command executed fine but the tempdate.txt remains empty ! why is this ?
That's the normal behaviour. What else did you expect?
Your file tempdate.txt has no other meaning then supplying a time stamp.

mv `find . ! -newer /home/etbc01/temp/tempdate.txt -type f` /home/etbc01/temp/
should work, provided that
1) /home/etbc01/temp is a directory
2) the list of files is not too long.
The usual way however is -exec option of find command.
And if you get errors like 'argument list too long',
you will have to use something like
find ... | xargs mv ...,
there should be threads here explaining this problem.

regards

 

[KenCunningham]

Hoinz - the more the merrier!! I have nothing to add at this stage.

 

[sandeepmur]

Hi, I am getting fwg output when I execute the command:

/NETSTAT>mv `find . ! -newer /home/etbc01/temp/tempdate.txt
-type f` /home/etbc01/temp/

Usage: mv [-f] [-i] [-e warn|force|ignore] f1 f2
mv [-f] [-i] [-e warn|force|ignore] f1 ... fn d1
mv [-f] [-i] [-e warn|force|ignore] d1 d2

any idea, whats wrong here ?

 

[KenCunningham]

Where (ie which directory) are you issuing the command from? Have you created tempdate.txt? Are you using 'backticks' (` above the tab key on my keyboard), not regular apostrophes?

 

[hoinz]

another idea:
Perhaps find command doesn't find any file at all? Are there such files?

 

[sandeepmur]

1. PWD is : /home/etbc01/NETSTAT
2. ls in this dir gives me:
-rw-r----- 1 etbc01 etbc 167031 Mar 14 10:52 duinfo.txt
-rw-r----- 1 etbc01 etbc 113472 Mar 14 10:53 npu.xls
-rw-r----- 1 etbc01 etbc 1333 Mar 14 10:52 sel.sql
-rw-r----- 1 etbc01 etbc 167031 Mar 14 13:52 sortDU.txt
-rw-r----- 1 etbc01 etbc 2783 Mar 14 11:52 test.txt

3.command touch 200403141130 /home/etbc01/temp/filedate.txt
created a file filedate.txt with the date above.

4. As I said, i now executed the find cmd in the NETSTAT dir with the previously posted message as output..

argh, never thought this wud get so tough ! thnx..