copy with data retention for 5 days then overwrite

[noe]

hi again, someone was kind to help me with a copy command script which seems to work. now i need to keep the copied data for 5 days (m-f) but on the following week the data needs to be overwriten. here is the copy .sh that im running:
#!/usr/bin/ksh
timestamp=`date | awk {'print $2 $3 $6'}`
for dir in /mytest/test1
do
cp -rp ${dir} /DATA/BACKUP/${dir}.${timestamp}
done

[OldSchool]

"following week the data needs to be overwriten"

doubtful...the "destination" directory in the script posted includes a "timestamp" in the form of "".

A) Surely you don't want to place "new" data in the old directory, which is what "overwrite" implies.

B) Do you want to continue to generate new directories with current "timestamp" and remove the old one?

C) Are you sure you only want to keep data 5 days, and not 7 (i.e. on Monday delete the prior Monday????)

D) Or would simply creating a /DATA/BACKUP/.mon thru /DATA/BACKUP/.fri work, overwriting those?

[noe]

Thanks for the reply. the timestamp really isnt needed. as long as i can keep the data 5 days i will be happy. your option D seems logical but im not sure how to rewrite the sh
thanks

[OldSchool · Accepted solution]

original script becomes:

#!/usr/bin/ksh
timestamp=`date +%a`
for dir in /mytest/test1
do
rm -rf /DATA/BACKUP/${dir}.${timestamp}
cp -rp ${dir} /DATA/BACKUP/${dir}.${timestamp}
done


timestamp will now have a value of mon, tue, wed, thu, fri (sat or sun would be there if run on weekends

it will attempt to remove an existing /DATA/BACKUP/${dir}.${timestamp} and then recreate it.

[noe]

thanks, will try tonight will let you know how it goes

[Dennis Handly]

>OldSchool: timestamp=`date +%a`

%a gives the weekday names. If you want numbers that sort, you can use %u (1-7) or %w (0-6)

[noe]

hi the script failed because it didnt find /mytest/test1 dir's under /DATA/BACKUP So i created the sub dir test1 and run it manually it seems to work. but if i want to have say /mytest2/test2 , i guess i will have manually create it under /DATA/BACKUP/mytest2/test2 for the script to work right?

[Dennis Handly]

>I guess I will have manually create it under /DATA/BACKUP/mytest2/test2 for the script to work right?

You can just do "mkdir -p" for the directory path then use cp.

[noe]

worked