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How to find the latest file on Unix or Linux

 
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# 1  
Old 11-03-2006
How to find the latest file on Unix or Linux
Please help me out how to identify the latest file in one directory by looking at file's timestamp or datestamp. You can say using system command. Thanks
# 2  
Old 11-03-2006
Code:
cd directory
ls -l -rt | head -1

is one way.
# 3  
Old 11-03-2006
Quote:
Originally Posted by jim mcnamara
Code:
cd directory
ls -l -rt | head -1

is one way.
You would use tail instead of head for the latest file.
# 4  
Old 11-03-2006
Jim, Lazytech:

Thanks very much for your advice. I mean the latest file by timestamp or datestamp. Using head -l or tail -l only list file in the begining or in the end. I don't care the order of the file listing. I want to know how to get or find the latest file based on date or time. Thanks.
# 5  
Old 11-04-2006
Well, if you man ls, you'll see what the switches mean. The -t switch sorts the listing by 'time' so the output is displayed from newest to oldest. The -r switch reverses it so the newest file is at the end of the listing instead of the beginning. And -l gives you the long listing.

Code:
$ ls -lrt
total 178880
-rw-r--r--  1 carlsche  carlsche      2727 13 Jul  2005 badlist
-rwxr-xr-x  1 carlsche  carlsche      1076 13 Jul  2005 scanlist
-rw-r--r--  1 carlsche  carlsche   1428173 22 May 21:25 dirlist.album
-rwxr-xr-x  1 carlsche  carlsche       429 22 May 21:26 dirout
-rw-r--r--  1 carlsche  carlsche   1404661 22 May 21:32 dirlist.song
-rw-r--r--  1 carlsche  carlsche   1404035 22 May 21:33 dirlist.artist
drwxr-xr-x  6 carlsche  carlsche       204 24 Sep 22:18 Previous iTunes Libraries
drwxr-xr-x  3 carlsche  carlsche       102 24 Sep 22:19 Album Artwork
drwxr-xr-x  9 carlsche  carlsche       306 24 Sep 22:40 iTunes Music
-rw-r--r--  1 carlsche  carlsche  42887486 29 Oct 18:32 iTunes Library
-rw-r--r--  1 carlsche  carlsche  44442517 29 Oct 18:32 iTunes Music Library.xml

Carl
# 6  
Old 11-06-2006
Carl:

Thanks for your explanation. It is clear. Question is: if I want to find the latest file (if reversed, it will be last file) to re-name and move to another directory on Linux. What kind of code should I write? Since using ls -lrt |tail -l, it will show a list of the latest file, not the last file. May I write code like this:

ls -lrt |tail -l |mv /directory1/file1 /directory2/file2

Please advise. Thank you so much.
# 7  
Old 11-06-2006
Probably this'd work best:

Code:
$ mv `ls -tr | tail -1` /tmp/newfile

Carl
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