Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!uwm.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cwns1!chet
From: chet@cwns1.CWRU.EDU (Chet Ramey)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: how to compare file modification time in bourne shell script
Message-ID: <1990Jul27.144806.2681@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>
Date: 27 Jul 90 14:48:06 GMT
References: <1990Jul23.233044.2729@silma.com>
Sender: news@usenet.ins.cwru.edu
Reply-To: chet@po.CWRU.Edu
Organization: Case Western Reserve Univ. Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
Lines: 33

>newer file1 file2
>
>that returns 0 if file1 is newer than file2 else returns 1

If you didn't like the C program, then try this:

newer()
{
	if [ ! -f $1 ] ; then
		return 1
	fi

	if [ ! -f $2 ] ; then
		return 0
	fi

	if [ $1 -nt $2 ] ; then
		return 0
	else
		return 1
	fi
}

The `-nt' option to test exists in bash and ksh, at least.

Chet

-- 
Chet Ramey					``See Figure 1.''
Network Services Group
Case Western Reserve University	
chet@ins.CWRU.Edu