I have a folder that I need to search for new files and copy on the latest. I've been using "-mtime -1" in my command line but it doesn't seem to work.

I've been meaning to fine a different script because files are dropped into the folder all day long and because of the -mtime, I've only be able to look for files once a day.

Does someone have a better way for me to search this folder throughout the day to find and copy only the latest files?

can you post the full command line?

I'm guessing you're using 'find'.

Have a cron job that does a listing of the directory and compares the results with the previous listing?

You can also use "ls" to sort files by timestamp.

Or touch a file at the end of each collection and simply gather the files newer than the file you touched the next time, then touch the file again.

Here's the command:

find . -type f -name "raw_file_*" -mtime -1 | cpio -iv <new directory>

The problem is, when I run this it copies ALL the files in the directory instead of those that are created in 1 day or less. It's crude, cause what I really need is something to look for only NEW files and copy those.

Many versions of the find command have an option called -newer which can be used to find files which are newer than the date of a reference file. See the find(1) man page for further information.

So at the end of the script, have the script touch the same file again?