Finding recent work directories

28 Feb 2023

      Since I often get side-tracked and forget what I was doing, I wrote a
script to find directories with recent (or otherwise selected) files
in them.  That makes a better list than sorting directories by their
own modification times.

This script, 'finddirs_by_latest_file', allows to restrict the search
with extra find expression terms, but I usually just run the second
script below, 'fblf100', which invokes finddirs_by_latest_file to make
two lists; for the latest 5 and 100 days (or whatever time periods
given).  Excuse all the script boilerplate.

Carlos, this may help you find your router config info.

--<cut>------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
# finddirs_by_latest_file.sh   2022-06-30   rw
#
# Outputs a list of directories of found files, sorted by the time of
# their most recently modified file, and prefixed by a file count.

#----------------------------------------
CMD=finddirs_by_latest_file
VERSION=0.1

export LC_COLLATE='C'
Cmd=`basename "$0"`

umsg() {
  #------<USAGE>---------------------------------------------------------
  printf 'usage: %s %s\n' \
    "$Cmd" '[--sdir] [find_options] ... [find_expression]' \
    '' '' \
    'The' 'find_expression, if any, is prepended to an implied:' \
    '    -type f' '-exec...'
  }

errmsg() {
  # usage: errmsg [msg_line ...]
  test 1 -le "$#"  || return 0
  printf "${Cmd}: %s\\n" "$@"  >&2
  }

usage() {
  # for output to stderr, and error exit:  usage [msg_line ...]
  # for normal exit:  usage help

  if [ x"$*" = x'help' ]  ;then
    umsg  ;exit
  else
    errmsg "$@"  ;umsg  >&2  ;exit 2
    fi
  }

errx() {
  # usage: errx <exitcode> [msg_line ...]

  if expr x"${1-}" : x'[1-9][0-9]*$' > /dev/null  ;then
    ExCode="$1"  ;shift
  else
    ExCode=3  ;set -- "$@" "$BUG: errx(): missing exit code"
    fi
  errmsg "$@"  ;exit "$ExCode"
  }

BUG="error: software bug"
errxbug() {
  errx 3 "$BUG: $@"
  }

exists() {
  # usage: exists <path>

  test -e "${1:?'exists(): null or missing arg'}"  ||  test -h "$1"

#  test -f "${1:?'exists(): null or missing arg'}"  || test -d "$1" \
#    || test -h "$1"  || test -b "$1"  || test -c "$1"  || test -p "$1"
  }

#------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Option defaults
SORT_BY_DIR_f=false

#XXX HACK: '--sdir' option is only recognized when it is first
if [ x"${1-}" = x'--sdir' ]  ;then
  SORT_BY_DIR_f=true
  shift
  fi

GOPTSTRING='hV'

while getopts ":$GOPTSTRING" OPT  ;do
  case "$OPT" in
    #-----
    h)  usage help ;;
    V)  printf 'RW %s %s\n' "$CMD" "$VERSION"  ;exit ;;
    :)  usage "missing argument for option: ${OPTARG}" ;;
    \?) usage "invalid option: ${OPTARG}" ;;
    *)  errxbug "getopts optstring: option: ${OPT}" ;;
    esac
  done
shift `expr $OPTIND - 1`

if [ x"$SORT_BY_DIR_f" = x'true' ]  ;then
  sort_by() { sort -k 3 -k 2,2n ;}
else
  # sort by time, then by dir (default)
  sort_by() { sort -k 2,2n -k 3 ;}
  fi

#------------------------------------------------------------------------

W=' *[^ ][^ ]* '

# find files: stat  <path>
# sed: truncate last path component (to parent dir), use '.' if empty,
#   or '/' if at root
# sort by dir, then by recent to old
# uniq: most recent of each dir.  prefix with file count
# sort by time, then by dir (unless '--sdir' option: sort by dir)
# sed: remove seconds field

export TMPDIR=~/tmp

TEMPF=`mktemp --tmpdir "$CMD.XXXXXXXXXX.temp"` \
  && trap 'rm -f -- "$TEMPF"' EXIT \
  || exit

find -H "$@" -type f -exec stat -c '%Y %n' {} +  > "$TEMPF"  || exit

sed -e '
s+^\('"$W"'\)[^/]*$+\1.+
t
s+^\('"$W"'/\)[^/]*$+\1+
t
s+^\('"$W"'.*\)/[^/]*$+\1+
' "$TEMPF" \
  |sort -k 2 -k 1,1nr \
  |uniq -c -f 1 \
  |sort_by \
  |sed -e 's+'"$W"'+ +2'

--<cut>------------------------------------------------------------------

--<cut>------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
# fblf100   2021-12-07   rw

TOP=~

usage() {
  printf 'usage: fblf100 [#_by_time_days [#_by_path_days]]' >&2
  exit 2
  }

{
  printf '=== %s days, in order\n' "${1:-5}"
  finddirs_by_latest_file "$TOP" -mtime -"${1:-5}" \
    || usage
  printf '\n=== %s days, sorted\n' "${2:-100}"
  finddirs_by_latest_file --sdir "$TOP" -mtime -"${2:-100}" \
    || usage
  } \
  |less

--<cut>------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 
Robert Webb

Robert Webb

Felix Miata

Robert Webb

Carlos E. R.

Carlos E. R.

cagsm

Bob Rogers

Robert Webb

Bernhard Voelker

Robert Webb

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