Renaming files within a script

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there --

I have a script that copies files from the localhost to a remote directory. Currently, the script overwrites the existing files in the remote directory. Here is an excerpt:

cd
rm -rf fstab
rm -rf exports
rm -rf hosts.equiv
rm -rf hosts
rm -rf passwd
rm -rf .rhosts


I would like to change that so that it renames the files with a date extension, ie: filename_24jan08, instead of overwriting them. The script uses the sh shell, but that can be changed if necessary. How can this be done?

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Andrew:

# mv myfile myfile.$(date +%d%b%Y)

...renames "myfile" to "myfile.24Jan2008" (or whatever is the current date.

If the file already exists on the date given, then it will be overwritten during the rename.

By the way, adding the recursive ('-r') switch to a 'rm' for *files* is meaningless.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Ivan Ferreira]

>>> I would like to change that so that it renames the files with a date extension

This could have negative effects, as if you don't control the number of "versions", you will have enless list of files.

To avoid this you can:

Name the file as -

That would be:

$FILENAME-$(date +%a)

In this case, the date of the file will be identified by the timestamp of the file.

You can put a "find" in your script:

find /somewhere -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \;

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there --

I went ahead and replaced the rm lines with the mv lines. This is the syntax that I used:

mv fstab fstab_$(date+%d%b%Y)
mv exports exports_$(date+%d%b%Y)
mv hosts.equiv hosts.equiv_$(date+%d%b%Y)
mv hosts hosts_$(date+%d%b%Y)
mv passwd passwd_$(date+%d%b%Y)
mv .rhosts .rhosts_$(date+%d%b%Y)

However, when I ran the script, the error messages shown below appeared on-screen:

./backup_script: line 1: date+%d%b%Y: command not found
./backup_script: line 1: date+%d%b%Y: command not found
./backup_script: line 1: date+%d%b%Y: command not found
./backup_script: line 1: date+%d%b%Y: command not found
./backup_script: line 1: date+%d%b%Y: command not found
./backup_script: line 1: date+%d%b%Y: command not found

I believe it is a syntax error, but I am not sure what it is.

[Ivan Ferreira · Accepted solution]

You need a space between date and +.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again):

> You need a space between date and +.

Had you copied-and-pasted the command I posted (albeit it as a generic example), you would have "seen" the whitespace.

Regards!

...JRF...