I am currently attempting to create a file which I access from an oracle form.

At the minute I do a host command and run an ls -l e.g.

/bin/ls -l /dir/dir/dir/ > /tmp/list.txt

I then read this file within my oracle form. However I want the user to be able to restrict, sort and filter the file so list.txt appears differently according to various choices.

Using ls I can give the user the ability to add a wildcard search so they specify the search criteria and this is used within the ls command e.g. the user wants to list all files begining with sav:

/bin/ls -l /dir/dir/dir/sav* > /tmp/list.txt

this works fine, but I also want the user to be able to specify ascending or descending order and order by name or date. Again this is all easy using the -r and -t arguments.

e.g.
/bin/ls -l /dir/dir/dir/sav* > /tmp/list.txt
/bin/ls -lr /dir/dir/dir/sav* > /tmp/list.txt
/bin/ls -lt /dir/dir/dir/sav* > /tmp/list.txt
/bin/ls -ltr /dir/dir/dir/sav* > /tmp/list.txt

However I now want to give the user the ability to restrict the output by displaying all files (as it does now) or files that were modified in the last 1 , 7 or 30 days.

As far as I can see this is not possible using the ls command.

I have tried using the find command, as follows:

last day:
/usr/bin/find /dir/dir/dir/sav* -daystart -mtime -1 -type f -ls > /tmp/list.txt
last 7 days
/usr/bin/find /dir/dir/dir/sav* -daystart -mtime -7 -type f -ls > /tmp/list.txt
last 30 days
/usr/bin/find /dir/dir/dir/sav* -daystart -mtime -30 -type f -ls > /tmp/list.txt
all files:
/usr/bin/find /dir/dir/dir/sav* -type f -ls > /tmp/list.txt

Here the user can specify the seach criteria (e.g. sav) and the number of days but I can't find a way of sorting the output by date or name as you can with ls arguments.

An example of the output I am getting from my latest attempt:

/usr/bin/find /dir/dir/dir/sav* -daystart -mtime -7 -type f -ls > /tmp/list.txt

is:

147977 260 -rwxr-xr-x 1 oracle dba 262144 Nov 19 12:20 /dir/dir/dir/sav1.fmb
149139 180 -rwxr-xr-x 1 oracle dba 180224 Nov 19 12:20 /dir/dir/dir/sav2.fmb
149125 276 -rwxr-xr-x 1 oracle dba 278528 Nov 20 15:41 /dir/dir/dir/sav3.fmb
149119 332 -rwxr-xr-x 1 oracle dba 335872 Nov 19 13:48 /dir/dir/dir/sav6.fmb
147540 364 -rwxr-xr-x 1 oracle dba 368640 Nov 19 10:59 /dir/dir/dir/sav5.fmb
149881 408 -rwxr-xr-x 1 oracle dba 413696 Nov 21 14:16 /dir/dir/dir/sav12.fmb
149557 436 -rwxr-xr-x 1 oracle dba 442368 Nov 22 15:12 /dir/dir/dir/sav36.fmb

Could anyone please suggest how I can achive this? Please let me know if you need further info, or if anything is unclear.

Best Regards

Try Ls -lt
The "t" sorts by access time then by name

ls -ltr will sort in the reverse order.

thanks, but I know about -t and -r, these will not work with the find command. I think I am almost there but within oracle forms the output doesn't seem to write to the file.

I've used backquotes, so for example: I've got the following for listing files begining with sav, modified in the last 7 days, and listed by date in reverse order:

ls -ltr `/usr/bin/find /dir/dir/dir/sav* -daystart -mtime -7 -type f -ls > /tmp/list.txt`

If I do this within a unix command window (putty) it works a treat but using a host command with oracle forms it doesn't work.......I think I'm almost there though!

I'll try it at work again tomorrow, but I think I need to specify the exact path for the ls command as I've done with the find command. I am also direct error output (i.e. 2>) to a file but I've not checked that yet.

thanks for your suggestion though.