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Full Discussion: Bash to select oldest folder in directory and write to log
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Bash to select oldest folder in directory and write to log Post 302986234 by jim mcnamara on Tuesday 22nd of November 2016 11:01:19 AM
Old 11-22-2016
FWIW - folder==directory

Directories are files of metadata - data about other files. So directories in many ways behave like regular files in terms of timestamps on the directory itself.

there is a filetime in epoch seconds for:
Code:
create  (not all UNIX filesystems track this, OSX may for example)
modify (inode)
access - latest read for example

    When the directory itself was first created (mkdir) -- set create (birth) date 
    When the directory was last opened and modified -- set modify date:
          an object in the directory was added
          an object in the directory was deleted
          note: opening an existing file and writing to it does not change the modify date 
            of the directory
change: set ownership, set access permissions (chmod, chown can do this)

So, the answer is: when you work with files in a directory some actions changethe modify date of that directory, some do not. You CANNOT prevent it.

You can use the touch command to "correct" a directory's modify time. If you are using a linux filesystem that supports create times use that. See your man page or --help for how to access the create (birth) times.
Last edited by jim mcnamara; 11-22-2016 at 12:12 PM..
This User Gave Thanks to jim mcnamara For This Post:
cmccabe
 

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LEARN ABOUT ULTRIX

rmf

rmf(1mh)																  rmf(1mh)

Name
       rmf - remove folder

Syntax
       rmf [ +folder ] [ -help ] [ -[no]interactive ]

Description
       The  command  removes all of the messages within the current folder, and then removes the folder itself.  If there are any files within the
       folder which are not part of MH, they are not removed, and an error message is displayed.

       You can specify a folder other than the current folder by using the +folder argument.  If you do not specify a folder, and cannot find  the
       current folder, asks you whether you want to delete instead.

       If the current folder is removed, it makes current.

       Note that the command irreversibly deletes messages that do not have other links, so use it with caution.

       If  the folder being removed is a sub-folder, the parent folder becomes the new current folder, and tells you that this has happened.  This
       provides an easy mechanism for selecting a set of messages, operating on the list, then removing the list  and  returning  to  the  current
       folder from which the list was extracted.

       Using to delete a read-only folder deletes the private sequence and current message information from the file, without affecting the folder
       itself.	If you have sub-folders within a folder, you must delete all the sub-folders before you can delete the folder itself.

Options
       -help	 Prints a list of the valid options to this command.

       -interactive
       -nointeractive
		 Asks for confirmation before deleting a folder.  By default, deletes a folder and its messages without asking	for  confirmation.
		 If  you  specify  the	-interactive option, asks if you are sure before deleting the folder.  You are advised to use this option,
		 since when deletes a folder its contents are lost irretrievably.

Examples
       This example shows how asks for confirmation when the -interactive option is used:
       % rmf -interactive +test
       Remove folder "test"? y

Profile Components
       Path:   To determine the user's Mail directory

Files
       The user profile.

See Also
       rmm(1mh)

																	  rmf(1mh)
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