find / tar sript

[hand-solo]

I have a directory that gets xml files downloaded into it, a large amount of files. I setup a script that will tar all .xml files daily, then remove the xml files. The problem I'm having is that it will create a zip file even if no files exist in the directory. Is there a way to put a clause it that will say if no xml files then abort the tar creation? I want this since the xml files arent always downloaded to the directory everyday.

Thx.

Here's my script so far.

NOWDATE=`date +%m%d%y`
cd /home/filestore
find . -name '*.xml' | xargs tar czvf $NOWDATE.tar.gz --files-from -
find . -type f -name "*.xml" -exec rm -f {} \;

[secondmouse]

If the .xml files are going to be under /home/filestore only (that is, not under sub directories), you can change your script a bit to:

#!/bin/bash
NOWDATE=`date +%m%d%y`
cd /home/filestore
[ -n "`ls *.xml 2>/dev/null`" ] && {
find . -name '*.xml' | xargs tar czvf $NOWDATE.tar.gz --files-from -;
find . -type f -name "*.xml" -exec rm -f {} \; ;
}

Change [ -n "`ls *.xml 2>/dev/null`" ] to
[ -n "`find . -name '*.xml' -type f`" ] if .xml files are under sub-directories of /home/filestore.

[hand-solo]

they are all on one directory, I will test that new script. Thanks for the response.

[hand-solo]

also, can u explain what the part you added does, from what get from it does a list of .xmls them sends them to a temp file.

[secondmouse]

ls *.xml : lists all items ending with .xml

-n "$some_string": tests if some_string is non-empty

2>/dev/null: direct error output to /dev/null so it will not show on the standard output, which is the screen in most cases. this is needed because if there are no .xml files under the directory, ls *.xml (without the error redirecting) will report ls: cannot access *.xml: No such file or directory, which will lead to -n test to be true and empty folder to be tar'ed.

[ some condition ] && {
do something;
do other_things;
}

is equivalent to

if [ some_condition ]; then {
do_something
do other_things
}

So basically the script will test if the directory contains .xml files, if so, start packaging with tar.

[hand-solo]

cool, got it, thanks so much for the response and explanation, I appreciate it.

[secondmouse]

No problem at all. In case you want to learn more, here's a site that dedicates to the ins and outs of bash scripting:
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide