getting the most recent file

anujairaj · #1 (**permalink**) 06-22-2006

Hi,
I have files coming in every day with that days timestamp like:
nameyyyymmddhhmmss.ext.
I need the most recent one and so i am using

cat `ls -t name*|head -1 ` > temp

i am sorting the files in the decending order and am copying the most recent one into a temp file.
It works at times but sometimes it does not.
Is there a better way to do it?
I dont want to compare it to todays absolute date ;I just want the most recent file.
any suggestions will be appreciated.
thanks

vgersh99 · #2 (**permalink**) 06-22-2006

Code:

ls -1 * | sed 's/^[^0-9][^0-9]*\([0-9][0-9]*\).*/\1 &/' | sort -n | cut -d ' ' -f2- | tail -1

anujairaj · #3 (**permalink**) 06-22-2006

Can you explain the
[^0-9]*\([0-9][0-9]*\).*/\1 &/'
part?
thanks

vgersh99 · #4 (**permalink**) 06-22-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by anujairaj

Can you explain the
[^0-9]*\([0-9][0-9]*\).*/\1 &/'
part?
thanks

1. anything BUT the numberS followed by
2. any number of digits followed by
3 anything

output 'bullet item '2' followed by ' ' and followed by the entire string

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