UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have the following script. I am trying to get the date time when an empty file was created. In my situation if an empty file is created it won't be touched again. At the end of the script I state the problem- the
#!/bin/ksh
#Source the file
. $HOME/.profile
typeset -L100 fname
typeset -L14 fdate
typeset -R12 reccnt
typeset -R12 charcntfinal
typeset -R12 cnt1
typeset -R12 cnt2
typeset -R12 sum1

fname=$1

#Get the actual date when the file was created, clip it from the actual data file.
fdate=`cut -c1-14 $fname`
echo fdate1: $fdate

#Get file size.
filesize=`ls -lrt $fname | awk '{ print $5 }'`
echo filesize is: $filesize

#Checks to see if variable is empty or if file size is 0.
if [[ -z $fdate ]] || [ $filesize = "0" ]
then
echo fdate is empty or fdate file size is 0.
#Get the date and time when the empty file was created.
#get the date time value from the ls -al output, where the delimiter is the file size (which is 0)
filedate=`ls -al $fname | cut -f2-4 -d'0' | cut -f1-4 -d' ' `
echo fdate when file was created is: $filedate
date=$filedate
fdate=`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S` (#PROBLEM? here date is not getting $filedate value. It still picks up the current date value. Don't know why?)
echo date time when file was created is: $fdate
fi

"perf_totals.sh" 73 lines, 2429 characters
ussun0s/scripts>

#Running the script..............................
ussun0s/scripts> perf_totals.sh gsk_vac.txt gsk_vac_control.txt
fdate1:
filesize is: 0
fdate is empty or fdate has spaces
fdate when file was created is: Jul 21 00:54
date time when file was created is: 20050802142511 (this is the problem. I am still getting the current date here, rather than the fdate when file was created.)

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Radhika.

pls for the future..... use VBcodes to properly format your posting - you can click on the on the bottom left of the window "Posting rules" to get the details of the VB codes

this reassigns the value of 'filedate' to a variable 'date'

Code:

date=$filedate

this assigns the return value of the command 'date' to a variable 'fdate'

Code:

fdate=`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S` (#PROBLEM? here date is not getting $filedate value. It still picks up the current date value. Don't know why?)

The code behaves as implemented. I think you're having something else in mind.

In the following command (fdate=`$filedate +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`
) if I put the filedate I get the below error. That's why I was trying to do date=$filedate

Output............................
fdate1:
filesize is: 0
fdate is empty or fdate has spaces
Jul 21 00:54
perf_totals.sh[33]: Jul: not found (errror...........)
date time when file was created is:

let me ask you:
what is the difference between 'filedate' and 'fdate'?

fdate- if a data file is created with actual data then first 14 chars of the data file will have the datetime stamp(14char format) in the data file for each record.

If an empty data file is created then file size is 0. With the help of file size I am trying to get the date time stamp of when the empty file was created. This is filedate. Requirement is to put this stamp in another control file. This

I think you need to revisit your logic and reconcile your description with what's been coded.

Again....

Code:

# assigns the value of the variable 'filedate' to the variable 'date'
date=$filedate

# assigns CURRENT time to the variable 'fdate'
fdate=`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`

Could you pl. see why if I put $filedate in the following command it does not work. I need to get filedate value in 14 char format.

# assigns CURRENT time to the variable 'fdate'
fdate=`$filedate +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`

If you can help me resolve this it solve my problem.

ThankYou,
Radhika.