Question

I have to use bash scripting to copy files from one folder to another. If the destination folder has a file with the same name but older timestamp, it should not copy. Only newer files should be copied. I could have used cp -u, but I was asked not to use it. Essentially I have to use the test command testing for “ot”. Please let me know how could this be done. I believe two for loops one to read the files in the source and one for the destination directories can be used and the the time stamp compared. The problem is that both for loops produce the absolute path names along with the file name. So not sure how to compare them

Thanks

Answer 1

You can profit from the parameter substitution:

for file in "$folder1"/* ; do
    filename=${file##*/}       # Remove everything to the last slash.

Or, you can change the directory:

cd "$folder1"
for file in * ; do
    ## you have to use full or relative path to $folder2 here