Script to FTP a modified file

[smithy4282]

Hello,

I am fairly new to shell scripting. I see a lot of examples out there of how to find if a file has been modified within a certain period of time. What I'm looking for help with is a script that will run and I'm thinking check for the last 24 hours but if not just check at runtime to see if an HTML file has been modified.

Then once it determines if the file has changed (I've read this can be done with either checksum or the md5 or md5sum commands) then it will FTP the file. I already have an example of how to connect to an FTP and transfer a file but again since I'm new to shell scripting I'd like some help with this.

On another forum I found an example of checking for if a file has been modified and printing things out. Since this will run in the background of a website I don't need it to print but I'm going to post the code here:

#!/bin/sh
#
#
# MD5FILE-parameter specifies where we want to save our md5print for
# later use.
MD5FILE=/tmp/.md5savefile

# The FILE_TO_CHECK-parameter specifies the file we want to monitor
# changes
FILE_TO_CHECK=/tmp/filetocheck

if [ ! -f $FILE_TO_CHECK ]
then
echo "ERROR Couldnt locate file to check:$FILE_TO_CHECK"
exit 1
fi

echo "Taking a print on $FILE_TO_CHECK with md5sum"
MD5PRINT=`md5sum $FILE_TO_CHECK | cut -d " " -f2`

if [ -z $MD5PRINT ]
then
echo "ERROR Recived an empty MD5PRINT thats not valid, aborting"
exit 1
else
echo "MD5PRINT we got was:$MD5PRINT"
fi

if [ -f $MD5FILE ]
then
echo "Found an old savefile:$MD5FILE we trying to match prints"
OLDMD5PRINT=`cat $MD5FILE`

if [ -z $OLDMD5PRINT ]
then
echo "Got an empty string from the oldfile, aborting"
exit 1
fi

if [ "$OLDMD5PRINT" = "$MD5PRINT" ]
then
echo "New and old md5print are identical, the file hasnt been changed"
else
echo "WARNING the old and new md5print doesnt match, the file has been changed"
fi

fi

echo "Saving to new md5print in logfile:$MD5FILE for later checks"
echo $MD5PRINT > $MD5FILE

if [ $? = 0 ]
then
echo "Wrote to file OK"
else
echo "Writing to file failed...why??"
exit 1
fi


I'm looking to modify this code to fit my needs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Cybex1]

You might want to look into inotifywatch...

http://nix-tips.blogspot.com/2009/08/monitor-file-changes-in-shell-script.html

It might be a way to achieve your desired outcome, a little easier.

Cybex

 

[mrn]

Not knowing the ins and outs of the files contents.

Thinking about it another way.

Would it matter that's it's changed?, Could you just transfer the file anyway.

What bit of the script you posted doesn't fit your needs?

Mike

"Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters."

 

[tarn]

Why re-invent the wheel?

rsync ?

Some info here is you need it

http://everythinglinux.org/rsync/

Laurie.