to pick the latest file modified in a directory


 
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# 1  
Old 07-07-2011
to pick the latest file modified in a directory

I wan to pick the latest modified file name and redirect it to a file ..

Code:
ls -tr | tail -1 >file

but this is printing file ins side the filename ,

can anyone help me out
# 2  
Old 07-07-2011
Code:
ls -lrt | tail -1 | awk '{print $NF}' > file

# 3  
Old 07-07-2011
ya the above command also gives the same output
Code:
$ ls -lrt | tail -1 | awk '{print $NF}' > file
$ cat file
file

# 4  
Old 07-07-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by vishwakar
I wan to pick the latest modified file name and redirect it to a file ..

Code:
ls -tr | tail -1 >file

but this is printing file ins side the filename ,

can anyone help me out
Because by the time the command ls -tr is run the re-directed filename becomes the latest one and hence the same file-name gets stored in the same file. Try
Code:
echo $(ls -tr | tail -1) > newfile.txt

But if you run once again you get the file newfile.txt appended to itself. Check by replacing > with >>. If you need a permanent solution then redirect the output file to a file present in different location.

Or could execute in a sub-shell
Code:
(ls -tr|tail -1 > newfile.txt)

# Which when run once again has newfile.txt stored in itself.

Last edited by michaelrozar17; 07-07-2011 at 05:17 AM..
# 5  
Old 07-07-2011
echo $(ls -tr | tail -1) > newfile.txt
is the best solution for it....
# 6  
Old 07-08-2011
ya that worked .. thanks everyone
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