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Need to search for keywords within files modified at a certain time

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# 1  
Old 08-29-2012
Need to search for keywords within files modified at a certain time
I have a huge list of files in an Unix directory (around 10000 files).

I need to be able to search for a certain keyword only within files that are modified between certain date and time, say for e.g 2012-08-20 12:30 to 2012-08-20 12:40

Can someone let me know what would be the fastest way to perform this search?

I tried using find . -exec grep -l "searchword" {} \; and it is taking a lot of time to perform the search as it searches within all the files in the directory.

I am not very much familiar with Unix.. Any help you could provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Last edited by methyl; 08-29-2012 at 08:10 PM.. Reason: please use code tags
# 2  
Old 08-29-2012
Create two files with touch:
Code:
touch -t 201208201230 dummy1
touch -t 201208201240 dummy2
find .   \( -newer dummy1 -a ! -newer dummy2 \)  -exec grep -l "searchword" {} \;

# 3  
Old 08-29-2012
I don't have write permissions to the directory. Hence I cannot execute this
Code:
touch: cannot touch `dummy1': Permission denied
touch: cannot touch `dummy': Permission denied
touch: cannot touch `2': Permission denied

Is it possible to let me know one single find command, without writing to a dummy file? Similar to the one below;
Code:
for i in $(find -name "*file1*" -o -name "*file2*" );do find $i -ls ; cat $i | grep -i searchword ; done

I use this command to search for a keyword within several files where I know the file name. In this case, I do not know the file name, and I need to search all the files created between two specific dates.
Last edited by methyl; 08-29-2012 at 08:01 PM.. Reason: please use code tags
# 4  
Old 08-29-2012
Quote:
Originally Posted by virtual123
I don't have write permissions to the directory.
So write them somewhere else. It doesn't matter where they are. /tmp/ will do.

Dummy files really is the most straightforward way on a lot of systems.
# 5  
Old 08-29-2012
I just executed the below script in the command line and this doesn't seem to work. Please help.
Code:
touch -t 201208271230 /home/n0149941/dummy1 ;touch -t 201208271240 /home/n0149941/dummy2; find .   \( -newer /home/n0149941/dummy1 -a ! -newer /home/n0149941/dummy2 \)  -exec grep -l "023758874" {} \;

Last edited by jim mcnamara; 08-29-2012 at 04:20 PM..
# 6  
Old 08-29-2012
In what way does it not work? Try substituting 'echo' for 'grep' and see what it prints then?
# 7  
Old 08-29-2012
i just tried substituting echo for grep and it lists a whole bunch of files. here is the command I used and the results. I am trying to search for the keyword 023758874 in the files. It just lists around 80 files and none of these files have this searched keyword.
Code:
$ touch -t 201208271230 /home/n0149941/dummy1 ;touch -t 201208271240 /home/n0149941/dummy2; find .   \( -newer /home/n0149941/dummy1 -a ! -newer /home/n0149941/dummy2 \)  -exec echo -l "023758874" {} \;
-l 023758874 ./4imlaep9tu9.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlaep9bbu.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlbcc7evw.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlbwaupvi.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlc67k4x7.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlc7nzmxy.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlcse2k81.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imld2t4edz.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imldlk3ni5.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imldvyzd93.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imldxm1njw.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imldzj4098.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imle0xg69h.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imle3ri5oy.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imle52y8e7.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlefi9ljc.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlegdr9ct.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlejmedy4.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlelcv1lw.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imleon11cm.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlep5jz1s.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imleq359pa.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlery8e5i.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlezyoz5x.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlf1kbu9p.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlf2ygsi5.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlf3e6sg3.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlf52g38z.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlf7a2871.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlf9xyi7b.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfaf3vv9.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfffuyny.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfh3ifd1.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfidx12c.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfmiv2e2.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfoooizd.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfslme1z.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfuvu2j7.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfwogsp6.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfxyxnx4.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlfz91pc7.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlg19ioyt.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlg6zw38r.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlg898g8c.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlga3fklg.data.dat
-l 023758874 ./4imlgfp3trs.data.dat-

Last edited by methyl; 08-29-2012 at 08:02 PM.. Reason: please use code tags
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