Shell script code: show oldest | newest file in folder and file age 2

Determining Oldest file and file age

Today I had to write a short shell script to help figure out the oldest file in a particular folder, how old that file was (in secs or minutes). This is a pretty common requirement when dealing with file(s) folders  such as working directories, where you periodically need to sweep or clean up files. It also offers a metric to see if certain files are lingering too long and becoming stale..

Of  course there are many other approaches to this problem, and if you simply want the file(s) to be erased after a specific period of time, UNIX has a special folder for this..  But for cases where you simply need to know what file was the OLDEST or NEWEST (simply modify)  the script below.

The script works as follows:

$ age.sh [filename]


If no filename is provided it automatically seeks the oldest file in the current folder, if a filename is given it simply returns that file(s) age.

#!/bin/bash
# get OLDEST (or NEWEST file age) from the current folder
# spurce http://www.abrandao.com/category/software/code-software/

# if no parameters are specified find the OLdest file in current folder
if [ $# -eq 0 ]
then
OLDEST=$(find . -maxdepth 1 -type f | cut -c3- |xargs ls -tr | head -1)
#echo "OLDEST file: $OLDEST"
else
OLDEST="$1"
#echo "File Age for: [$OLDEST]"
fi

#now lets do the date match and get back in seconds (since epoch) time
time_now=`date +%s`
old_filetime=`stat -c %Y $OLDEST`
#new_filetime=`stat -c %Y $NEWEST`

time_oldest=$(( (time_now - old_filetime) ))
UNIT="secs"

#echo "$OLDEST file is $time_oldest $UNIT old"

#convert time to make it more readable in sec/min/hour
if [ $time_oldest -gt 60 ]
then
time_oldest=$((time_oldest/60))
UNIT="min."
if [ $time_oldest -gt 60 ]
then
time_oldest=$((time_oldest/60))
UNIT="hrs"
fi
fi

# Display oldest filename followed by age in sec/min/hour
echo "$OLDEST is $time_oldest $UNIT"

#time_newest=$(( (time_now - new_filetime) ))
#echo "$OLDEST file is $time_oldest $UNIT old"
# echo "$NEWEST file is $time_newest secs. old"

For a more sophisticated version that offers command line options and searches both OLDEST and NEWEST file in a specific folder take a peek below.

#!/bin/bash
# usage: age+.sh [old|new] [/path_to_folder/]
#
# defaults to oldest file in current folder

usage()
{
cat << EOF
usage: age+.sh [o|n] [/path_to_folder/]

Displays news or oldest age of file in a given folde

OPTIONS:
-o displays oldest file
-n newest file in folder
-x exit

EXAMPLES:

age+.sh o /path_to_folder/ displays oldest file in folder
age+.sh n /path_to_folder/ displays newest file in folder
EOF
}

getage()
{
# let's make sure that the folder exists
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
echo "Error: you must specify a directory name"
usage
exit 1
fi

time_now=`date +%s`
filetime=`stat -c %Y $1`

time_diff=$(( ($time_now - $filetime) ))
UNIT="secs"

if [ $time_diff -gt 60 ]
then
time_diff=$(($time_diff/60))
UNIT="min."
if [ $time_diff -gt 60 ]
then
time_diff=$(($time_diff/60))
UNIT="hrs"
fi
fi

#echo "$2 $time_oldest $UNIT"
echo "$1 file [$2] is $time_diff $UNIT ago."

exit 1;
}

while getopts ":o :n" opt; do
case "$opt" in
o)
dirname="$2"

echo "Finding in location $dirname"
if [ -z "$dirname" ]
then
echo "[Current folder]"
OLDEST=$(find . -maxdepth 1 -type f \( ! -iname ".*" \) | cut -c3- |xargs ls -tr | head -1)
else
OLDEST=$(find $dirname -maxdepth 1 -type f \( ! -iname ".*" \) | cut -c1- | xargs ls -tr | head -1)
fi

getage $OLDEST "oldest"
;;
n)
dirname="$2"
echo "Finding in location [$dirname]"
if [ -z "$dirname" ]
then
echo "[Current folder]"
NEWEST=$(find . -maxdepth 1 -type f \( ! -iname ".*" \) | cut -c3- |xargs ls -t | head -1)
else
NEWEST=$(find $dirname -maxdepth 1 -type f \( ! -iname ".*" \) | cut -c1- | xargs ls -t | head -1)
fi

getage $NEWEST "newest"
;;

x) exit
echo "Exiting..."
;;

\?) echo "$OPTARG is an unknown option"
usage
exit 1
;;

*)
usage
;;
esac
done