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How to tell UNIX to start from the oldest file?

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# 1  
Old 08-31-2018
How to tell UNIX to start from the oldest file?
Hello,
I have a simple while loopinside the script and I wish to tell unix to start reading from the oldest txt file. So, in case some new txt files are transferred into the same folder, the script will not take into consideration until all older files are completely processed. How may I do this?

Let's say, below process takes six hours to be completed and I do not wish to wait until then:
Code:
cd /home/tmp
while i in *.txt
 do
     ffmpeg $what_soever_command$
sleep 5
mv $i /home/tmp/junkie/$i
 done

Should I list all txt files according to their age
Code:
ls -lt

And then sort from older to newer. Is there a nice way?

Kind regards
Boris
# 2  
Old 08-31-2018
Why not:
Code:
cd /home/tmp
ls -rt *.txt | while IFS= read -r i
do
	ffmpeg $what_soever_command$
	sleep 5
	mv "$i" "/home/tmp/junkie/$i"
done

?
These 2 Users Gave Thanks to Don Cragun For This Post:
baris35 jim mcnamara
# 3  
Old 08-31-2018
Hello Don,
Thanks... Have just checked your code now and voila!
Lesson learnt!

Code:
  -r, --reverse              reverse order while sorting
  -t                         sort by modification time, newest first


Kind regards
Boris
# 4  
Old 09-01-2018
Code:
if [ -r job.pid ]
then
     exit 1
fi
echo $$ >job.pid

cd /home/tmp

  ls -rt *.txt | while IFS= read -r i 

do     ffmpeg $what_soever_command$     

sleep 5     

mv "$i" "/home/tmp/junkie/$i"
 done
 rm job.pid

Two other considerations:
If the text file is large, then a file may appear in the list while it is being received, and processed while it is still incomplete.
Remove any job.pid files that exist on system boot up.
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