Hey all. As with most things in Linux, there are more than a few ways to skin a cat for a particular task. I'm just having trouble wrapping my brain around the best, most consistent approach to my dilemma.

Purpose: Move only those files that match 2013 from ls -la (column 8) to a different directory

We have some large files that need to get moved elsewhere because they're taking up disk space. Those files with 2013 in the 8th column only. So, I got to thinking, something like:

for i in $(ls -la | awk '{print $8}'); do mv $i /tmp/storage; done

But this, of course, merely strips that field and doesn't get the job done as the files themselves need to get moved.

Then, I thought:

cd /dir
find . -mount -type f | grep 2013 -exec mv {} /tmp/storage \;

but, because the files are so huge, I need to test before I verify results are what I want.

Then, maybe:

mv `ls -la | grep 2013` > /tmp/storage

but this has the disadvantage of ls not being so accurate.

Anyone have a better solution?

Modification times between x and y:

2 members found this post helpful.

Thanks sz. I think that'll do the trick nicely!

*Edit - Whoops. Looks like I don't have the -newermt switch for find. Anything else I might try? I need to keep the system as standardized as possible, FYI.

Use "touch -t 201301010000 /tmp/stamp1" and "touch -t 201401010000 /tmp/stamp2" to create two timestamp files and then use "find . -newer /tmp/stamp1 ! -newer /tmp/stamp2 -type f" to select the files.

And yes, I realize that files with a modification time that exactly matches either of timestamps would be mishandled. Move each timestamp back one second if that concerns you.

1 members found this post helpful.

No prob. In case rknichols comment doesn't help, can you provide the --help output of your 'find' command? The solaris ports and GNU versions will be quite different.

find --help
Usage: find [path...] [expression]

default path is the current directory; default expression is -print
expression may consist of: operators, options, tests, and actions:

operators (decreasing precedence; -and is implicit where no others are given):
( EXPR ) ! EXPR -not EXPR EXPR1 -a EXPR2 EXPR1 -and EXPR2
EXPR1 -o EXPR2 EXPR1 -or EXPR2 EXPR1 , EXPR2

positional options (always true): -daystart -follow -regextype

normal options (always true, specified before other expressions):
-depth --help -maxdepth LEVELS -mindepth LEVELS -mount -noleaf
--version -xdev -ignore_readdir_race -noignore_readdir_race

tests (N can be +N or -N or N): -amin N -anewer FILE -atime N -cmin N
-cnewer FILE -ctime N -empty -false -fstype TYPE -gid N -group NAME
-ilname PATTERN -iname PATTERN -inum N -iwholename PATTERN -iregex PATTERN
-links N -lname PATTERN -mmin N -mtime N -name PATTERN -newer FILE
-nouser -nogroup -path PATTERN -perm [+-]MODE -regex PATTERN
-wholename PATTERN -size N[bcwkMG] -true -type [bcdpflsD] -uid N
-used N -user NAME -xtype [bcdpfls]
-context CONTEXT


actions: -delete -print0 -printf FORMAT -fprintf FILE FORMAT -print
-fprint0 FILE -fprint FILE -ls -fls FILE -prune -quit
-exec COMMAND ; -exec COMMAND {} + -ok COMMAND ;
-execdir COMMAND ; -execdir COMMAND {} + -okdir COMMAND ;

Report (and track progress on fixing) bugs via the findutils bug-reporting
page at http://savannah.gnu.org/ or, if you have no web access, by sending
email to <bug-findutils@gnu.org>.