Prev: Team Red Bull Hats ( www.nike-black.com )
Next: I just don't understand find -prune
From: Stu on 9 Jul 2010 09:44
I know what the mtime parameter does but can somebody explain what
the
difference is when the number followed by the parameter is "+" and
when it's
"-".

Ie:

#find . -name "*.trc" -mtime -2 -print | wc -l
3

#find . -name "*.trc" -mtime 2 -print | wc -l
0

There is obvious a difference since I am getting back a different
number, but I am
not sure what the difference is.

thanks to all who answer in advance
From: steven_nospam at Yahoo! Canada on 9 Jul 2010 10:06
On Jul 9, 9:44 am, Stu <beefstu...(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> I know what the mtime parameter does but can somebody explain what
> the difference is when the number followed by the parameter is "+" and
> when it's "-"
> #find . -name "*.trc" -mtime -2 -print | wc -l
>        3
>
> #find . -name "*.trc" -mtime 2 -print | wc -l
>        0


Actually your two examples are not the same as the question you asked,
since you did not add the "+" in front of the number on the second
one.

Here is how it works:


List me all the files that were modified within the last two 24 hour
periods.
# find . -mtime -2 -ls

List me all the files that were modified beyond the last two 24 hour
periods.
# find . -mtime +2 -ls

List me all the files that were modified during the second 24 hour
period (in other words during the 24hr period from two days ago)
# find . -mtime 2 -ls

You can test this out by doing the following. Create a temporary
directory. Inside the directory, create three sample files using the
"touch -t" command.

touch -t 201007011212 SAMPLE_JULY01
touch -t 201006201212 SAMPLE_JUNE20
touch -t 201007081212 SAMPLE_JULY09

Now use the find command with an appropriate value (for example:
"-10", "+10", or just "9" if doing it on July 9)

You should be able to see what exactly it picks up.

SteveN



From: Janis Papanagnou on 9 Jul 2010 10:06
Stu schrieb:
> I know what the mtime parameter does but can somebody explain what
> the
> difference is when the number followed by the parameter is "+" and
> when it's
> "-".

The command find and it's parameters is described in the man page.
I thought you should already know how to look that up.

And, BTW, "2" is not "+2"; it's apparently depending on the context.

>
> Ie:
>
> #find . -name "*.trc" -mtime -2 -print | wc -l
> 3
>
> #find . -name "*.trc" -mtime 2 -print | wc -l
> 0
>
> There is obvious a difference since I am getting back a different
> number, but I am
> not sure what the difference is.
>
> thanks to all who answer in advance
From: Stu on 9 Jul 2010 16:27
On Jul 9, 10:06 am, Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanag...(a)hotmail.com>
wrote:
> Stu schrieb:
>
> > I know what the mtime parameter does but can somebody explain what
> > the
> > difference is when the number followed by the parameter is "+" and
> > when it's
> > "-".
>
> The command find and it's parameters is described in the man page.
> I thought you should already know how to look that up.
>
> And, BTW, "2" is not "+2"; it's apparently depending on the context.
>
>
>
>
>
> > Ie:
>
> > #find . -name "*.trc" -mtime -2 -print | wc -l
> >        3
>
> > #find . -name "*.trc" -mtime 2 -print | wc -l
> >        0
>
> > There is obvious a difference since I am getting back a different
> > number, but I am
> > not sure what the difference is.
>
> > thanks to all who answer in advance- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

FYI, I always check the man page first before posting, I would not
waste people's time. That's why
I made the post/

There was not clear definition of what the "-", "+" or no sign before
the n paramter actually does.

man find on AIX 5.3 box

-mtime n
Evaluates as True if the file modification time subtracted
from
the initialization time, divided by 86400 seconds (with
any
remainder discarded), is n. 86400 seconds is 24 hours.
Note: The
definition of -mtime has changed to comply with the Single
UNIX
Specification, Version 3. The previous behavior of -mtime
evaluated as True if the file had been modified in n-1 to
n
multiples of 24 hours. By default, find -mtime works like
it did
prior to UNIX03. The UNIX03 behavior can be obtained by
setting
the environment variables XPG_SUS_ENV to ON and XPG_UNIX98
to OFF.

I know you been a big help to me before in the past and I do
appreciate your vast knowlege of the shell
and its commands but sometimes all the answers are not in the
documentation.
From: Janis Papanagnou on 9 Jul 2010 21:39
On 09/07/10 22:27, Stu wrote:
> On Jul 9, 10:06 am, Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanag...(a)hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>> Stu schrieb:
>>
>>> I know what the mtime parameter does but can somebody explain what
>>> the
>>> difference is when the number followed by the parameter is "+" and
>>> when it's
>>> "-".
>>
>> The command find and it's parameters is described in the man page.
>> I thought you should already know how to look that up.
>>
>> And, BTW, "2" is not "+2"; it's apparently depending on the context.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Ie:
>>
>>> #find . -name "*.trc" -mtime -2 -print | wc -l
>>> 3
>>
>>> #find . -name "*.trc" -mtime 2 -print | wc -l
>>> 0
>>
>>> There is obvious a difference since I am getting back a different
>>> number, but I am
>>> not sure what the difference is.
>>
>>> thanks to all who answer in advance- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> FYI, I always check the man page first before posting, I would not
> waste people's time. That's why
> I made the post/
>
> There was not clear definition of what the "-", "+" or no sign before
> the n paramter actually does.
>
> man find on AIX 5.3 box

Thanks for this new information. I cannot tell you whether AIX 5.3 has
a SUS standard find(1) or whether it is similar to the one on my Linux
box. I suggest to inspect the man docs on the web and the POSIX standard
(http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/find.html) and
check it out whether your find is conformant. The mentioned docs specify
what +n, n, and -n does.

Janis

>
> -mtime n
> Evaluates as True if the file modification time subtracted
> from
> the initialization time, divided by 86400 seconds (with
> any
> remainder discarded), is n. 86400 seconds is 24 hours.
> Note: The
> definition of -mtime has changed to comply with the Single
> UNIX
> Specification, Version 3. The previous behavior of -mtime
> evaluated as True if the file had been modified in n-1 to
> n
> multiples of 24 hours. By default, find -mtime works like
> it did
> prior to UNIX03. The UNIX03 behavior can be obtained by
> setting
> the environment variables XPG_SUS_ENV to ON and XPG_UNIX98
> to OFF.
>
> I know you been a big help to me before in the past and I do
> appreciate your vast knowlege of the shell
> and its commands but sometimes all the answers are not in the
> documentation.

 |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2
Prev: Team Red Bull Hats ( www.nike-black.com )
Next: I just don't understand find -prune