UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I need a UNIX ksh script that counts the number of files in directory, if the files exceed 20 files, then email results. I want the script to run every hour.. I don't have access to cron.. I'm some what new to UNIX. Windows guy all my career.. this is what I have so far..

Code:

#!/bin/ksh
# count.sh

while :
do
 for dir in /directory1/
 do
  echo "$dir `du $dir |wc -l`" 
 done > ./message
 mailx -s 'Dir Count' me@johndoe.com < ./message
 sleep 3600
done

Any help is greatly appreciated...

How new are you to UNIX?
Because giving you the code will maybe sort you out, but if you get in trouble with the script then you are doomed, so I believe if you came here, its to learn...
Looking at given code puzzles me because I have doubts, have you tried it? what is it doing?
Do you really need a loop?
What do you call file ( a directory in your directory is counted? a link? )

When I run the code given, it gives me the count of the files in the directory and sends me the email of the file count, but what I need the script to do is.. only email me the count, if its over 20 files in the directory.. No hidden files... Finally, I want the script to run every hour, if the directory exceeds 20 files, then email.. We cant use cron here..

If you had subdirectories it would list them and their content also, the same for hidden stuff...
Compare in your directory

Code:

du . |wc -l     and   ls . |wc -l

and

Code:

du . |more      and    ls  .|more

then try the same in another directory where you have subdirs...


The code you gave is a loop that reads whatever it finds in directory1 and displays its disk usage... and counting how many lines are sent to output

If you want to count file in one directory, then you dont need a loop

Code:

ls -1 <directory> |wc -l

Should do the job: You have the count

I forgot to say: what your script sends you is the content of last occurence of the loop since it overwrites itself at each new execution...

Relational operators:
-lt
-gt
-eq
etc...
are used like this:

Code:

if [ $A -gt $B ]
then
   echo "A: $A is greater than B: $B "
else
   ...
fi

In your case

Code:

B=20
A=$(ls -1 <directory> | wc -l )

You now should be able to get the work done...