Bash [[ file1 -ot file2 ]] not working?

[GenericHuman]

Hi all,

what am I doing wrong?

ls -l of file1:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2007-04-11 00:01 /var/tmp/dateFile

file2 is a directory in the /tmp directory:

drwx------   2 root    root    4096 2007-04-21 12:47 kde-root

Bash script code snippet:

for file in `ls /tmp` ;
do
        if [[ $file -ot /var/tmp/dateFile ]]
        then
                echo "File $file is older than /var/tmp/dateFile and will be removed."
                if [[ $debug == "false" ]]
                then
                        rm -rf $file
                fi
        fi
done

My log file tells me that kde-root is older than dateFile.
This seems wrong to me. So, I figure I am abusing something in the language here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

GenericHuman

[Cabhan]

That is very strange, since my test script works fine...

Try replacing the condition with:

if [ $(stat -c '%Z' "$file") -lt $(stat -c '%Z' /var/tmp/dateFile) ]

Does that give the correct results?

[GenericHuman]

I just tried it with the suggested line, and I get the same results.
The code isn't that long.... I'll list the whole thing so you get a better shot at seeing if I'm messing up elsewhere and this is just an unhappy side-effect.

Note that I have only commented out my original algorithm for the date comparison.

Any recommendations on general style are appreciated as well.

#!/bin/bash

#
# This is a script to clean up /tmp using a file with a
#+ set timestamp and then removing all files that are
#+ older than this test file.
#

ERR_NOT_ROOT=10
logfile=/var/log/dirClean.log

########################################################
# With $debug set to "true" no files will be removed.
#+ $debug can have values of "true" or "false".
########################################################
debug=true

########################################################
# If the script is not in $debug mode, it must be run
#+ as root. If not root, then print explanation and
#+ exit the process.
########################################################
if [[ "$UID" -ne 0 && $debug == "false" ]]
then
        echo "You must be root to run this script."
        exit $ERR_NOT_ROOT
else
        exec 5<&1               # Associate stdout to 5
        exec 6<&2               # Associate stderr to 6
        exec 1>>$logfile                # Redirct stdout to log
        exec 2>>$logfile                # Redirct stderr log
fi

########################################################
# Set up the date variables
########################################################
day=`date +%d`
year=`date +%Y`
month=`date +%m`

echo ""
echo "##########################################################"
echo "Date run is $month/$day/$year."
echo "##########################################################"

if [[ $debug == "true" ]]
then
        echo ""
        echo "It would seem that the debug flag is set."
        echo ""
fi

########################################################
# If the month is January we must change year and month
#+ to remove all files more than a month old.
########################################################
if [[ month -eq 1 ]]
then
        ((year--))
        month=12
else
        ((month--))
fi

########################################################
# If, for some reason, there is a file called "dateFile"
#+ we will be polite and not step on it.
########################################################
if [ -e /var/tmp/dateFile ]
then
        filename=`echo -n dateFile$$`
        echo "dateFile exists, using $filename instead."
else
        filename=dateFile
fi

echo "$filename is being used."

touch --date="$month/$day/$year 00:01" /var/tmp/$filename

echo "Created the file $filename with timestamp $month/$day/$year."
echo `ls -l /var/tmp/$filename`

for file in `ls /tmp` ;
do
#       if [[ /tmp/$file -ot /var/tmp/$filename ]]
        if [ $(stat -c '%Z' "/tmp/$file") -lt $(stat -c '%Z' /var/tmp/dateFile) ]
        then
                echo "File $file is older than $filename and will be removed."
                if [[ $debug == "false" ]]
                then
                        rm -rf $file
                fi
        fi
done

#####################################################
# Clean up the dateFile in /tmp
#####################################################
rm /var/tmp/$filename
echo "Cleaned up the dateFile, $filename."

#####################################################
# Clean up the stdout and sterr
#####################################################
echo "Restoring stdout and stderr."
echo ""

exec 1<&5               # Restore stdout
exec 2<&6               # Restore stderr
exec 5<&-               # Restore stderr
exec 6<&-               # Restore stderr


exit

[Franklin52]

Try find, something like:

echo "These files are older than $filename and will be removed:"

find -type f -newer /var/tmp/dateFile -exec ls -l {} \;
find -type f -newer /var/tmp/dateFile -exec rm -f {} \;

Regards

[GenericHuman]

lol,

well, Franklin52 certainly has cut to the chase... but I was rather hoping someone might attempt to explain why the [[ file1 -ot file2 ]] code was not working.

Thanks Franklin, that does solve my more immediate issue.

Generically Human