Find Files in Time Range

README.md

Find Files in Time Range

Recursively search for all files whose last modification time is in a specified range.

fftr path {time|file} range [b]

where:

• path is where to start the search
• time is any format understood by date -d
• file is a reference file (now is a time, hence use ./now)
• range in seconds; +N after time, -N before time, N centered on time
• (optional) b means bare output

Examples

• find files modified at most 2 day ago: fftr . now -2*24*60*60
• find files modified at most 1 second before or after the time of myfile: fftr . myfile 2
• find files modified at most 2 hours after the time of a file named 'now': fftr ./now +2*60*60
• move files modified at most 7 days ago: mv $(fftr . now -7*24*60*60 b) /else/where

Screenshots

fftr

#!/usr/bin/bash

error_exit () {
  echo -e "error: $1" >&2
  exit 1
}

(( $# >= 3 && $# <= 4 )) || error_exit "
  Find Files in Time Range:
  Recursively searches for all files whose last modification time is in a specified range.
  ${0##*/} path {time|file} range [b]
  where:
  - path is where to start the search
  - time is any format understood by [date -d]
  - file is a reference file ('now' is a time, hence use './now')
  - range in seconds; +N after time, -N before time, N centered on time
  - (optional) b means bare output
  Examples:
  - find files modified at most 2 days ago: ${0##*/} . now -2*24*3600
  - find files modified at most 1 second before or after the time of myfile: ${0##*/} . myfile 2
  - find files modified at most 2 hours after the time of a file named 'now': ${0##*/} ./now +2*60*60"

for cmd in date stat find; do
  command -v $cmd >/dev/null || error_exit "missing command $cmd"
done

if time=$(date -d "$2" +%s 2>/dev/null)
then
  echo "given time: $(date -d @$time)" >&2
else
  time=$(stat -c %Y "$2" 2>/dev/null) || error_exit "cannot interpret '$2' as time nor ref file"
  echo "reference file modification time: $(date -d @$time)" >&2
fi

cd $1 || error_exit "not a path or not accessible: $1"
typeset -i dev=$3
(( dev == 0 )) && error_exit "invalid range: $3"
case "$3" in
  +*) lot=$time; hit=$((lot+dev)) ;;
  -*) hit=$time; lot=$((hit+dev)) ;;
   *) lot=$((time-dev/2)); hit=$((lot+dev)) ;;
esac

[[ "$4" > '' ]] || opt=-ls

echo -e "time range: $(date -d @$lot) ... $(date -d @$hit)\n" >&2
find . -type f -newermt @$lot -not -newermt @$hit $opt