Question

Looking for generic way how to sort a random list of files by its modification time, so something like:

./make_list_of_files | some_sorter_by_mtime

my currect solution is (here the make_list_of_files is the find command):

find / -type f -print |\
  perl -nle 'push @in,$_;END {@out = sort{ (stat($a))[9] <=> (stat($b))[9] } @in; $,="\n";print @out}'

exists some simpler solution (e.g. without perl)?

Answer 1

Your some_sorter_by_mtime should be for example:

xargs stat -f "%m %N" | sort -n | cut -f2-

the idea behind is:

• print out file modification time and the filename
• sort the output numerically (so by modification time)
• cut out the time field

so,

find / -type f -print | xargs stat -f "%m %N" | sort -n | cut -f2-