Shell Programming and Scripting

I know that you don't believe me yet, but about 299 cycles from now (when your numbers grow to 4 digits instead of 3 digits) you will find that your code stops working unless you pay attention to my suggestion...

Code:

D_file=`ls -1rt *Deposit_*.csv | tail -1`
Dd_file=`ls -1rt *Deposit_*.checksum | tail -1`
W_file=`ls -1rt *Withdrawal_*.csv | tail -1`
Ww_file=`ls -1rt *Withdrawal_*.checksum | tail -1`

I know you say you prefer tail over head, but your script will run faster if you use:

Code:

D_file=`ls -1t *Deposit_*.csv | head -1`
Dd_file=`ls -1t *Deposit_*.checksum | head -1`
W_file=`ls -1t *Withdrawal_*.csv | head -1`
Ww_file=`ls -1t *Withdrawal_*.checksum | head -1`

and on Solaris systems, you should get the same results without the -1 option (filtered either by head or by tail):

Code:

D_file=`ls -t *Deposit_*.csv | head -1`
Dd_file=`ls -t *Deposit_*.checksum | head -1`
W_file=`ls -t *Withdrawal_*.csv | head -1`
Ww_file=`ls -t *Withdrawal_*.checksum | head -1`

Note that the ls -1 option is on by default whenever standard output is not a terminal (and the pipe that is the standard output of ls when its output if fed to head or tail is not a terminal).

I have followed your suggestion, (using the head) and its working fine, thank you.