filtering a file then deleting it.

road69runners · 11-29-2004, 03:26 PM

How do I filter a file for a certain string, and, if it is found delete the file and a binary file asscoiated with it? Example: I have several mail files that get bounced back due to bad addrersses. I want to delete these files and the binary file that is assciated with it. The binary file has the same name but starts with a "d". Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am a novice with perl, awk, sed and the rest of the commands. Thanks...

david_ross · 11-29-2004, 03:28 PM

Welcome to LQ.

You could use something like this:

Code:

if [ `grep -c "string" $file` -gt 0 ];then
 rm -f $file
fi

jeremy · 11-29-2004, 03:59 PM

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Programming and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

--jeremy

road69runners · 11-30-2004, 03:31 PM

David,
Thanks for the info...but being the newbie I am not sure what to do with it. Can I use this in a shell script? How do I read the file in when the file name will be different each time? And how do I delete the associated binary file that has the same name but with a "d" in front of it?
Sorry for all the questions. Someday I hope to learn all of this.
Thanks again for the help.....Rick

david_ross · 12-01-2004, 01:23 PM

I have no idea how you will do it. How is the script going to be called?

road69runners · 12-02-2004, 01:20 PM

I would run the script manually or put it in cron.

david_ross · 12-02-2004, 01:54 PM

Then call the script like:
/path/to/script /path/to/file_to_check

Code:

#!/bin/bash
file=$1
if [ `grep -c "string" $file` -gt 0 ];then
 rm -f $file
fi