Date within a timeframe 2 days ago Post: 302421522

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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Date within a timeframe 2 days ago Post 302421522 by curleb on Friday 14th of May 2010 02:12:09 PM

05-14-2010

Registered User

I do see a potential need for this sort of peg approach, especially if even a cron job misses or similar; or you'd need to just re-do the job. It would allow you to rely on a fixed timeframe, but methyl's point is well-taken since your point in the day would also need to be pegged to a difference between now and 6am.

A better approach would probably be to dummy up your timestamps and then use these within your find query string; I've always needed (and done) this in SQL, but I've never hunkered down to do it within the shell for files. I'm on Solaris, so GNU date is not an option, I'm using the standard issue ksh88 (on Solaris 10) or ksh93 (on Windows) and perl is not a viable option for the OP. So the question is really more over basic portability: can the shell manage a suitable date calculation method? And if it can, what's the most portable approach across the various shells?

Okay, so if you were able to pony up a reliable calculation of today's date-1 and date-2 (or better yet...any date-1 and date-2 args, to allow for any sort of catch-up situation...), you could effectively dummy up a timestamp and touch two files for use within the find command to use a query against -newer $date-1 and ! -newer $date-2. Since the available options will vary by your platform and/or shell, the components may vary, but the results shouldn't. Based on your original find command query's use of -mmin, it looks like you're either GNU or ksh93-based, so you might be able to use kshji's -d option, but this is more of a mental exercise for me. (I'd argue using perl is good for you, but there are many ways to get the required results.)

I'll take the wimp's way out for the moment and propose a pseudocode theory as opposed to actual code here, since I am crunched for time today, but the basic premise is as follows. (I'll provide actual code at some point, if I get a chance):

0) Calculate your timespan based on arguments to a function/script (ie, 2 and 1 to achieve two days ago and one day ago, etc);
-> this allows for flexibility in terms of days back, etc. (Can be expanded to apply to the specific timestamp as well...)

1) Take those calculated dates and dummy them up into a touch command such as follows:
-> note the use of literals in the timestamps, which allows for the inclusion of another variable-driven value;

Code:

         touch /tmp/beg_date.txt 
         touch /tmp/end_date.txt 
         touch -m ${1:-$(date +%m%d0600)} /tmp/beg_date.txt    #  $1 = MMDDHHmm 
         touch -m ${2:-$(date +%m%d0559)} /tmp/end_date.txt    #  $2 = MMDDHHmm

2) Modify your find command to reflect these bookend files in your query:

Code:

         find . -newer /tmp/beg_date.txt -a ! -newer /tmp/end_date.txt | ...

I'd also recommend the following link with regard to going about actually calculating the days back value(s), since this would be specific to your platform and/or preferences (https://www.unix.com/answers-frequent...rithmetic.html)

Last edited by curleb; 05-14-2010 at 03:19 PM..

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LEARN ABOUT REDHAT

mac2unix

dos2unix(1)						      General Commands Manual						       dos2unix(1)

NAME

       dos2unix - DOS/MAC to UNIX text file format converter

SYNOPSYS

       dos2unix [options] [-c convmode] [-o file ...] [-n infile outfile ...]

       Options:

       [-hkqV] [--help] [--keepdate] [--quiet] [--version]

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page documents dos2unix, the program that converts plain text files in DOS/MAC format to UNIX format.

OPTIONS

       The following options are available:

       -h --help
	      Print online help.

       -k --keepdate
	      Keep the date stamp of output file same as input file.

       -q --quiet
	      Quiet mode. Suppress all warning and messages.

       -V --version
	      Prints version information.

       -c --convmode convmode
	      Sets conversion mode. Simulates dos2unix under SunOS.

       -o --oldfile file ...
	      Old file mode. Convert the file and write output to it. The program default to run in this mode. Wildcard names may be used.

       -n --newfile infile outfile ...
	      New  file  mode.	Convert the infile and write output to outfile. File names must be given in pairs and wildcard names should NOT be
	      used or you WILL lost your files.

EXAMPLES

       Get input from stdin and write output to stdout.

	      dos2unix

       Convert and replace a.txt. Convert and replace b.txt.

	      dos2unix a.txt b.txt

	      dos2unix -o a.txt b.txt

       Convert and replace a.txt in ASCII conversion mode.  Convert and replace b.txt in ISO conversion mode.  Convert	c.txt  from  Mac  to  Unix
       ascii format.

	      dos2unix a.txt -c iso b.txt

	      dos2unix -c ascii a.txt -c iso b.txt

	      dos2unix -c mac a.txt b.txt

       Convert and replace a.txt while keeping original date stamp.

	      dos2unix -k a.txt

	      dos2unix -k -o a.txt

       Convert a.txt and write to e.txt.

	      dos2unix -n a.txt e.txt

       Convert a.txt and write to e.txt, keep date stamp of e.txt same as a.txt.

	      dos2unix -k -n a.txt e.txt

       Convert and replace a.txt. Convert b.txt and write to e.txt.

	      dos2unix a.txt -n b.txt e.txt

	      dos2unix -o a.txt -n b.txt e.txt

       Convert c.txt and write to e.txt. Convert and replace a.txt.  Convert and replace b.txt. Convert d.txt and write to f.txt.

	      dos2unix -n c.txt e.txt -o a.txt b.txt -n d.txt f.txt

DIAGNOSTICS

BUGS

       The program does not work properly under MSDOS in stdio processing mode.  If you know why is that so, please tell me.

AUTHORS

       Benjamin Lin - <blin@socs.uts.edu.au>

       Bernd Johannes Wuebben (mac2unix mode) <wuebben@kde.org>

MISCELLANY

       Tested environment:

	      Linux 1.2.0 with GNU C 2.5.8

	      SunOS 4.1.3 with GNU C 2.6.3

	      MS-DOS 6.20 with Borland C++ 4.02

       Suggestions and bug reports are welcome.

SEE ALSO

       unix2dos(1) mac2unix(1)

1995.03.31							   dos2unix v3.0						       dos2unix(1)