Dear All,

I'm new to unix scripting. I'm trying to write an utility script which has to check if one file is newer than another one. The condition is I dont know the full name of the first file. I searched google and this forum for any such examples, but couldn't find any or may be I would have missed it.

I wrote this simple check using if, but it is not working.

if [ /abcd/xyz* -nt /abcd/test.txt ]
then
echo "file found"
else
echo "file not found"

Try like this:

if [ `ls -1 /abcd/xyz*` -nt /abcd/test.txt ]
then
echo "file found"
else
echo "file not found"
fi

Hi Ramesh,

Thanks for a quick reply. Now I'm getting the following error message when I run the script.

0403-012 A test command parameter is not valid.

Check whether this will return only 1 file or more than 1 files

ls -1 /abcd/xyz*

for f in /abcd/xyz*
do
     [ "$f" -nt /abcd/test.txt ] && echo "file f$ found"
done

echo rm -r -i  /abcd/xyz*

@Ramesh_srk

Yes Ramesh the directory has a lot of files having xyz* files.

@kshji

Thanks a lot. Its working as expected.

Just wanted to clarify one more thing. There are more than 100 xyz* files present in the directory and I'm checking for only today's file which will be one or two and the others are old files. If I use a for loop will it not take more time?

coz I have search for a lot of different files in different directories created for the day. All these directories will have 100 of files with the same starting charcters as the ones I search for. So if I use a "for" loop wont the script take more time and more CPU utilization. Just wanted to know.

In between your explanation of unix treats the variables and conditions is very helpful. Thanks a ton for that too.

Thanks

I forgot to ask one more thing. If I use a for loop and if the file is not found how would I be able to say that the file not found explicitly as I do in if statement


Thanks a lot for your help guys