Sorting all files of home folder modified after a specific date for backup

fc6_user · 03-29-2007, 06:13 PM

Hi all!

Here's what I'd like to be able to do. I'm sure it's possible, but not sure how to go about it using the command line.

Let's say I burned my entire home directory on November 1, 2006 onto a DVD. I'd now like to burn a new backup DVD, but I don't want to recopy all of the stuff I'd already saved on Nov 1, 2006, just the files that were written or modified on and after Nov 1, 2006; in other words, all files in the home directory, but also all files in all subdirectories written/modified after Nov 1, 2006. I would like to leave the home directory intact (no changes). Is this possible?

I know that 'ls -tl' lists files in order from the most recently modified/written to the least recent. The recursive (-r) option could be used, and I could also pipe the results of it into another command... copy them (cp) into another directory, for example. I could then burn the contents of the new directory and discard it once the DVD has been burned. I can't figure out how to choose a specific date and time and to get only the files that were written/modified after that point. Even if I did know how to do that, I wouldn't know what the best way of doing so would be.

Any takers?

Thanks.

trickykid · 03-29-2007, 06:37 PM

Hint: Use find with the -mtime option for modified time.

Micro420 · 03-30-2007, 03:24 AM

Code:

tar --newer-mtime 2006-11-01 -czvf /backupdir/filename.tar.gz /home

SUppose could work with the find command

Code:

find /home -mtime 150 -print | xarg cp -r * /backupdir