Using FIND to locate files created between certain dates
 

Hello everyone,

I am trying to make a script that will locate all files files matching a particular name "*x*" that were created between two dates so that I can then grep them for a particular string. I am currently using this script:

/bin/find ./ -ctime -31 -name "*x*" -exec /bin/cat {} ";" | /bin/grep y >> file

but my requirements have changed so I can't look for files created between last month and today, but rather between two past dates. Thanks for any assistance!

There is no creation time for a file in UNIX systems
instead you have :
- time of last access
- time of last modification
- time of last status change

You surelly want time of last modification which is mtime

Er, yeah -ctime isn't creation time but changed time, sorry for the misunderstanding. I was looking at mtime but it still doesn't look like it will support a range of dates either, only from the past till now. I need it to find files changed/modified between two past dates. Thanks for replying.

You could use -newer file and you touch a file
with the most ancient date and the other as :

1st date : 1/6/2005 12:00
2nd : 12/7/2005 12:00

Just to clarify, -c is the time the inode entry was last changed, -m is the time the data in the file was last changed.

Thanks, I'll give this a try!

find takes multiple selectors

e.g. find files that were modified yesterday:

find . -mtime +1 -mtime -3

so, older than 1 day but younger than 3. Works with ctime, atime, mmin etc as well.

I think that's your ticket.

You can chain all kinds of selection statements like that.

mlp