Your problem is this line:
To the shell it means: test ([]) the variable FILECOUNT for existence and if it has a value, and redirect any output to the file named '2' (> 2). If you're using the single bracket form of the tests, you'll have to use
-gt instead of >
-lt instead of <
-ge instead of >=
-le instead of <=
-ne instead of !=
You can get a list of all test operators by looking at the man page of test.
---------- Post updated at 09:26 ---------- Previous update was at 09:21 ----------
@dennis.jacob: the parameter '-1' to ls won't change anything. If ls detects that output does not go to a terminal it automatically switches to single-column mode. You can easily test that by running
in any directory.
Yes pludi, Its my mistake. Thank you for pointing that.
I'm writing a script to find the oldest file in a directory. I know this can be done by using ls -rt | tail -1 but these are rather large directories and that can be somewhat slow since the script will be running constantly.
Are there any other ways to do this that would be faster? I looked to... (2 Replies)
Hi all,
I need your assistance in removing the oldest file in a directory.
I posted the same thread 3 days back and I got the following answer
ls -1 -t | tail -1 | xargs rm
which is not covering the case when there are directories older than the oldest file.
So, could you please... (2 Replies)
I am using a bash script to perform some automated maintenance on files in a directory. When I run the script using $sh -x script.sh <directory> the script works fine. It sets the variable to the oldest file, and continues on. However when I run the script like this $./script.sh <directory>, it... (5 Replies)
Hi all,
I am a newbie to scripting and I need your help regarding finding the oldest file in a particular directory. My intention is to remove that oldest file.
Are there any options available with the "find" command to do this..
Thanks in advance for your help
Pavan (4 Replies)
I am trying to determine the oldest and most recent files in a huge directory. I am using an ls -tr statement outside my find statement. The directory is too big and I am getting an "arg list too long" error. Is there something I can put in my find statement that doesn't create a list to... (2 Replies)
The `bash` below uses the oldest folder in the specified directory and logs it. The goes though an analysis process and creates a log. My problem is that if there are 3 folders in the directory folder1,folder2,folder3, the bash is using folder2 for the analysis eventhough folder1 is the oldest... (0 Replies)
In the bash below the oldest folder in a directory is selected. If there are 3folders in the directory /home/cmccabe/Desktop/NGS/test and nothing is done to them (ie. no files deleted, renamed) then the bash correctly identifies f1 as the oldest. However, if something is done to the folder then... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: cmccabe
4 Replies
LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN
shell-quote
SHELL-QUOTE(1p) User Contributed Perl Documentation SHELL-QUOTE(1p)NAME
shell-quote - quote arguments for safe use, unmodified in a shell command
SYNOPSIS
shell-quote [switch]... arg...
DESCRIPTION
shell-quote lets you pass arbitrary strings through the shell so that they won't be changed by the shell. This lets you process commands
or files with embedded white space or shell globbing characters safely. Here are a few examples.
EXAMPLES
ssh preserving args
When running a remote command with ssh, ssh doesn't preserve the separate arguments it receives. It just joins them with spaces and
passes them to "$SHELL -c". This doesn't work as intended:
ssh host touch 'hi there' # fails
It creates 2 files, hi and there. Instead, do this:
cmd=`shell-quote touch 'hi there'`
ssh host "$cmd"
This gives you just 1 file, hi there.
process find output
It's not ordinarily possible to process an arbitrary list of files output by find with a shell script. Anything you put in $IFS to
split up the output could legitimately be in a file's name. Here's how you can do it using shell-quote:
eval set -- `find -type f -print0 | xargs -0 shell-quote --`
debug shell scripts
shell-quote is better than echo for debugging shell scripts.
debug() {
[ -z "$debug" ] || shell-quote "debug:" "$@"
}
With echo you can't tell the difference between "debug 'foo bar'" and "debug foo bar", but with shell-quote you can.
save a command for later
shell-quote can be used to build up a shell command to run later. Say you want the user to be able to give you switches for a command
you're going to run. If you don't want the switches to be re-evaluated by the shell (which is usually a good idea, else there are
things the user can't pass through), you can do something like this:
user_switches=
while [ $# != 0 ]
do
case x$1 in
x--pass-through)
[ $# -gt 1 ] || die "need an argument for $1"
user_switches="$user_switches "`shell-quote -- "$2"`
shift;;
# process other switches
esac
shift
done
# later
eval "shell-quote some-command $user_switches my args"
OPTIONS --debug
Turn debugging on.
--help
Show the usage message and die.
--version
Show the version number and exit.
AVAILABILITY
The code is licensed under the GNU GPL. Check http://www.argon.org/~roderick/ or CPAN for updated versions.
AUTHOR
Roderick Schertler <roderick@argon.org>
perl v5.8.4 2005-05-03 SHELL-QUOTE(1p)