UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi All,

I have a situation where I need to copy the files having the latest date.

For example I have a file by name bas100e1_jun05. I need to copy it to bas100e1. But when a file by name bas100e1_jul05 is put in the same directory the script should copy the file having the latest month which is bas100e1_jul05.

Thanks
Shash

If the mtime on the i-node for the file relects the date in the filename try:

Code:

cp `ls -1 -rt | tail -1` bas100e1

If the modification times of the files don't necesarilly match the "dates" coded in the filenames, then you have to be a bit more creative. If this is part of a big project that you want automated, you should look into writing a perl script, which would read the directory filenames into an array, and then parse the filenames for substrings (those correspdng to "dates"), and order the array according to these substrings. In this way you can determine the filename corresponding to the most recent date.

Also, as more general advice, rather than making a copy of the most recent file, you should consider creating a symbolic link to it. E.g., in your example above, use:
ln -s bas100e1_jun05 bas100e1

But to get to the real issue: I don't know what you are trying to do with these different files. But if these file represent different versions/revisions of basically the same file, and you are using dates in the filenames to keep track of these revisions, then you are probably WAY better off looking into a version control system. Probably RCS is what you would want to use. Very simple and elegant...

Why are you re-posting again ? You are breaking the rules.

Here is your post.

https://www.unix.com/unix-for-dummies-questions-and-answers/20507-copying-files-latest-date.html

I am replying to this thread since you have an extra requirement, added to this post, instead of adding it to the original.

Check this out.

Code:

#! /bin/sh

for file in *
do
if [ "$file" = *_jun* ] ; then

#Extract the maximum from the filename. 
#The ending pattern for the file will be _jun05 et al..
FILE=${file%*_}
cp $file /destination/dir/$FILE

elif [ "$file" = *_jul* ] ; then
cp $file /destination/dir/$file

fi ;
done

-vino.

Hi Vino,

Sorry I thought if people might have not seen in the dummies forum. So I posted here.

Thanks for the info..

Shash

Hi,

Thats true... I need to do something on automation.

Shash

Hi Vino,

Its not working.....

Thanks
Shash