Why does this script just delete my new wav files all the time?

kleptophobiac · 01-14-2004, 08:38 PM

The idea is for the script to run at 3:00 pm every day, and if there are new wav files, to move the old mp3 into an archive, encode a new mp3, and then dispose of the wav file.

Instead, the thing just goes on a psycho rampage and eats wav files with no mp3 output. What is going wrong?

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#Archives old MP3's, and compresses new ones

#Set DATE variable to today
DATE=`date +'%m-%d-%Y'`

#Checks to see if there is a new wav file. Does nothing if there is not.
if ls /audio/ | grep -q wav &> /dev/null
then
	#Copy old MP3's into an archive directory, then deletes
	mv /audio/*.mp3 /audio/archive

	#Encodes wav file into MP3
	lame -a -h -p -b 96 /audio/*.wav /audio/$DATE.mp3

	#Deletes old wav file
	rm /audio/*.wav
fi

trickykid · 01-14-2004, 08:55 PM

Have you tried the script without the deletion of .wav's yet? Just to see if it is actually encoding them at all?

jschiwal · 01-15-2004, 01:43 AM

You might want to add verbose options to the commands that allow it and redirect stdio and stderr to a file.

Also, whenever I move files to a directory, I add a '/' after the target directory. The first time that the file is run, if the target directory doesn't exist, will rename the file instead of causing an error. ( Assumming only one file exists ) I just think that is is a good habit, whether you are using bash or even windows DOS.

kleptophobiac · 01-15-2004, 05:00 PM

My main concern is the if statement.... I really don't know how to use them. This is my first bash script ever, and I don't know if I did it right.

michaelk · 01-15-2004, 06:46 PM

Does it convert all of the files by just using a wildcard? Have you tried the lame line (no pun intended) on the command line?

How about

Code:

if yadda
 mv ... 
 foreach file (/audio/*.wav)
  ...
  lame ... $file /audio/$date.mp3 
  rm $file
 end
 (instead of rm $file you can rm /audio/*.wav here )
fi

This is untested but you probably get the idea.

Why are you changing the name of the wav file to a date? It is possible to use the sed command to name the MP3 the same as the wav.

(For some reason my changes are not being saved)
There is more to shell programming than meets the eye.

r.stiltskin · 01-15-2004, 09:06 PM

According to the lame man page, this is the syntax:

lame [options] <infile> <outfile>

Apparently you can't use a wildcard as you did in

Quote:

lame -a -h -p -b 96 /audio/*.wav /audio/$DATE.mp3

so lame ignores that command, and then you get to

Quote:

rm /audio/*.wav

rm is perfectly happy with wildcards so on the first loop it deletes all the wav files in the /audio directory.

Instead, before the loop, move the old mp3s to the archive directory. Use your code

Quote:

#Copy old MP3's into an archive directory, then deletes
mv /audio/*.mp3 /audio/archive

Then step through the /audio directory one file at a time, something like:

Quote:

cd /audio
for W_file in *
do
if [[ $W_file == *.wav ]]
then
#Encodes wav file into MP3
lame -a -h -p -b 96 $W_file /audio/$W_file$DATE.mp3

#Deletes old wav file
rm $W_file
fi
done

PS: if you use $DATE.mp3 for <outfile>, you'll just keep overwriting lame's output & end up with only 1 mp3 for the day.