Get differences between files and removing oldest if different

[Dave Walley]

Hi. I need some help, I have a job which generates reports on a regular basis, what I need to do is loop through the files and compare each one with the newest one and if identical I would like to remove the older version. There will be an unknown number of files. Here is an example listing

/pfile/init_dba18_15491713042005.ora newest
/pfile/init_dba18_15320613042005.ora
/pfile/init_dba18_15251313042005.ora
/pfile/init_dba18_15191313042005.ora

I would like to remove the files with no changes and only keep the newest of the unchanged ones.

Thanks... Dave

[Steven E. Protter]

I would suggest the diff command.

diffs=$(diff file1 file2 | wc -l)

You will need a loop to process all the files.

if [ $diffs -ge 1 ]
then
rm file2
fi

Its a start.

SEP

[Peter Godron]

Dave,
use ls -lt to get the files in creation order
Use the first (newest file) with head and do a diff aginst the next file (second newest).
If the result is no diff then rm the second file, repeat until all files are done.

Regards

[Peter Godron]

Dave,
use ls -lt to get the files in creation order
Use the first (newest file) with head and do a diff aginst the next file (second newest).
If the result is diff then rm the second file, repeat until all files are done.

Regards