[SOLVED] Sort files from command line

offgridguy · 02-05-2016, 08:15 PM

In my ongoing efforts to learn the command line, I have found the
'sort' command to sort files, in this case document text files. In the books I have, I find the option to sort by size, ie; smallest to largest or vice versa, but I can't see an option to sort by date created. By default files seem to sort alphabetically or by date modified. I would prefer to sort them by date created and then rename them numerically to keep them in that order. I only have a few files at present, so it's not an issue to rename them individually, once I have them sorted into the proper order. I realize I can do this from the GUI but I want to learn how to do it from the command line. All help appreciated.

syg00 · 02-05-2016, 08:31 PM

No-one can help without knowing the format of your data - post a few lines, then what you expect to produce as output.

In the interim, look at "man sort". Manpages are always the best place to start.

offgridguy · 02-06-2016, 08:02 AM

Thank you for the reply.

Currently my files are text document, titled as,example; FileName.odt. I would like to sort them in order of date created and rename them with a common prefix, numerically as this example.
Cr(1)FileName.odt
Cr(2)FileName.odt
Cr(3)Filename.odt
Cr(4)FileName.odt

Naturally the (FileName) for each individual file would be unique to reflect the contents of the file. However having a common prefix as well as extension gives me a convenient way to move or copy them using wildcards.
Plus numbering them numerically will keep them sorted by folder, in the order I like them.

Renaming is not the issue, once they are sorted by date, the rename is relatively easy.

HMW · 02-06-2016, 09:06 AM

Hi!

You don't really need to use sort for this, you can use ls (from the man page):

Code:

      -t     sort by modification time, newest first

So, something like this works:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

i=1

for file in $(ls -t .); do
    if echo $file | grep -q '^FileName'; then
        echo "CR($i)"$file
        ((i++))
    fi  
done

exit 0

In this directory:

Code:

ls
FileNamea.odt  FileNamew.odt  sortRename.sh
FileName.odt   FileNamex.odt

I get this result:

Code:

./sortRename.sh 
CR(1)FileNamew.odt
CR(2)FileNamea.odt
CR(3)FileNamex.odt
CR(4)FileName.odt

Best regards,
HMW

offgridguy · 02-06-2016, 09:44 AM

@ HMW,
Thank you very much. I appreciate the help.