Posted by bill on 02/19/07 11:53

Gordon Burditt wrote:
>> I have been presented with the task of getting the last file from
>> a linux directory when the files are of the form:
>> nnnnnn-xxxxxxx-.ext
>>
>> where nnnnnn are 6 numeric digits and xxxxxx is variable a/n data.
>
> Define "last". Files do not have an intrinsic ordering.
>
>> I could read the entire directory in an sort, but I hope there is
>> an easier way.
>
> You may have to read the entire directory in, get the timestamp
> (which one? There are several.) for each file, and sort based on
> most recent timestamp.
>
> You also might want to avoid files that don't match the given filename
> pattern. Files with names matching *.core tend to appear even when
> not intended.
>
"last" is numerically highest nnnnnn

bill

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