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How do I compare the current date/time to the modification date/time of a file?

April 26, 2017compare comparing file modification time Unix

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How do I compare the current date/time to the modification date/time of a file?

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Hi Bill, To get the modification date/time of a file, issue the command without the brackets <>: $ date -r To get the current date/time, issue the command: $ date To compare the two, save each in a variable, and then compare the values of the variables via picking off the delimited fields of the date/time. To save the current date/time in a variable, issue the command: $ date=`date` Then to display the value of the variable date, issue the command: $ echo “date = $date” To save the modification date/time of a file, issue the command: $ modtime=`date -r ` The to display the value of the variable modtime, issue the command: $ echo “modtime = $modtime” To compare the current/time vs modification time of the file, you will need to use one of awk, nawk or gawk – gawk or nawk would be a better choice than awk. Here is an example: Let’s say that the output of each command above echos the following values: modtime = Fri Apr 17 17:14:40 EDT 2009 and date = Wed Jun 3 16:13:1