Help with automated filename script

lhoff · 09-07-2004, 07:04 AM

I want to have the following run as a cron job:

Code:

/*** Plain english rundown of job ***/
for (every file in In ~/INBOX/.SPAM/cur){
   oldFilename = the current filename
   if(oldFilename does not end in :2,S){
      newFilename = oldFilename + ":2,S"
      rename the current filename as newFilename
   }
}

/*** End plain english rundown ***/

How would I do this? Is this a job for grep? Whatever I settle on, I will want to enter it as a crontab for the user. A Perl script that is put into /etc/cron.hourly would also work, I suppose. (I've never done anything like that before.)

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

jim mcnamara · 09-07-2004, 10:13 AM

Code:

for file in /INBOX/.SPAM/cur/*
do 
      echo "$file" | grep  -q ':2,S'
      if [ $? -ne 0 ] ]; then
          mv $file $file':2,S'
      fi 
done

lhoff · 09-07-2004, 10:46 AM

Thanks, Jim!

The
for file in
was missing a $. But, I actually NOTICED (with the help of emailed cron output...)

It's nice when I actually learn something.

Cheers!

Added comment:

Well, I was wrong. I had tried to run your script as
#! /usr/bin/perl

when it really needs to be run as
#! /bin/bash

In that case, the use of file instead of $file was correct. But, there seemed to be an extra ] in line 6.

Well, further testing will tell. Thanks again for the generous help.