UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello, I am trying to write a simple script to wake up every 300 seconds and look for a new file in a directory (e.g., "G102005"), remove the "G" from the file name, then print the new filename.

Here's what I've got so far. I'm new at this so please forgive the errors or misuse of syntax. It should be pretty clear what I'm trying to do. If possible please make corrections rather than just tell me what's wrong.

Thanks in advance!
alexkav

#!/bin/ksh
touch newtime
sleep 300
NEW=`find . -type f -name "G*" -newer newtime`
if [ ! -f $FILE ]
exit
else
sed -e 's/G//g' $NEW >FILE
echo $FILE
mv newtime oldtime

Here is what I came up with so far.

Code:

#!/bin/ksh
touch newtime
sleep 10
NEW=`find . -type f -name "G*" -newer newtime`

if [ $NEW="" ]; then
	echo "bombing"
	exit 1
else
	echo "sedding"
	echo $NEW
	
	echo $NEW > temp
	sed -e 's/G//g' temp > FILE
	
	mv newtime oldtime
	rm -f temp
	
	exit 0
fi

I was using a time of 10
for debugging, but maybe thats too soon. I don't know the
intervals of file timestamps. will look into it.

Code:

#!/bin/ksh

touch newtime
sleep 300

NEW=`find . -type f -name "G*" -newer newtime`
echo $NEW

if [ -z $NEW ]; then
	echo "bombing"
	exit 1
else
	echo "sedding"
	echo $NEW
	
	echo $NEW > temp
	sed -e 's/G//g' temp > FILE
	
	mv newtime oldtime
	rm -f temp
	
	exit 0
fi

gjduff, thanks alot for your help. I made a small change to your script to get rid of the temp part, since I don't want to write anything to the dir. How can I get rid of the "./" in the output? (see below):

sedding...
./203040

Also, instead of making the script exit if it doesn't detect a new file, how can I make it keep checking the dir?

Thanks again for your help,
alexkav

#!/bin/ksh
touch newtime
sleep 10
NEW=`find . -type f -name "G*" -newer newtime`
echo $NEW
if [ -z $NEW ]; then
echo "bombing..."
exit 1
else
echo "sedding..."
echo $NEW | sed -e 's/G//g' FILE
echo $FILE
mv newtime oldtime
exit 0
fi

Oops, hang on. I think my removing the temp did something bad. Let me try again...

Ok, this is better. Thanks again.

#!/bin/ksh
touch newtime
sleep 10

NEW=`find . -type f -name "G*" -newer newtime`

if [ -z $NEW ]; then
echo "bombing..."
exit 1

else
echo "sedding..."

FILE=`echo $NEW | sed -e 's/G//g'`
echo $FILE

mv newtime oldtime
exit 0
fi