UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,

How do I write a korn shell that will rename file with the current date. What I want to do is, I have a file that is re-written every day. But instead, I want to keep a 14 day history of the file. So I want to write a script that will rename the current file with a date attached to the end of the filename. Then have the script go through the history and delete the ones that are 14 days past the current date. Thank you.

Basically, save the current date to a shell variable like DATE

Code:

DATE=`date +"%Y%m%d"`

Move the file to the new file

Code:

mv log log.$DATE

And then just delete the files older than 14 days

Code:

find /var/adm -name log.* -exec rm {} \;

Of course you'll need to put some extra bits around the commands I gave you. I don't know your file name name or path. I don't know if the find will delete more than just the file you're interested in. I don't know if the program will continue to write to the moved file or if you'll need to create a new log file and restart the app. I don't even know the OS which might make a difference.

Since I don't know any other variables other than the bit you put out, these commands if executed as they sit now could cause some damage to your system. Make sure you appropriately modify them with file names and paths and check the subdirectories to make sure you don't delete a needed file.

Carl

you can try this

#!/bin/sh
mv <filename> <filename.`date +%Y%d%m%H%M%S`>
find <dirname> -type f -name <filename.*> -mtime +13 -exec ls -lt {} \; -exec rm -f {} \; >file_list





rgrds,
samsam