Being a newbie ( unix is sooo cool ) my knowledge is not all that great. So i seek help. I need too automate the backup of log files. The problem comes in that log too be backed up is the day before. I thought this would be easy.

__________________________________________________ _________
day=x
date +%d > date.log
for dy in $(seq -w 31)
do
if grep $dy date.log
then day=$(expr $dy - 1) ;
fi
done
#
#
month=x
date +%B > month.log
for mnth in January February March April May June July August September October November December
do
if grep $mnth month.log
then month=$mnth ;
fi
done
#
#
year=x
date +%Y > year.log
for yr in 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
do
if grep $yr year.log
then year=$yr ;
fi
done
__________________________________________________ _________

Ok, it looks messy but i at least thougt it did the job.
Here's the prob : -
Line 6) then day=$(expr $dy - 1) ;
When $dy=1 , 1 - 1 =0 . Last time i checked the calendar there was no 0 of the month .

In a nutshell i somehow need too calculate the current date less 1 day. Can this be done or do i have too turn too another scripting language.
HELP!!

Have a look at the command 'find'. The mtime option can be used to list files that have been modified within a specified number of 24 hour periods.

e.g.

find . -mtime 1

find . -mtime +1 (inverts the above)

HTH

Thanx for the nfo Damian. Problem is that find is gonna pull all files updated within last 24 hours. I need too somehow get 01-03-2003 too 28-02-2003 . So there is going too have too be some form of intelligence in it.

You could use find with the -newer flag

First create a file with a timestamp to use as the cutoff point...

touch -t 200309181230.00 timeCutOffFile

find timeCutOffFile -newer yourLogFile

The above would return "timeCutOffFile" if it is newer than yourLogFile, hence...

if ! test -z "$(find timeCutOffFile -newer yourLogFile)"
then
# if the result of the find is not empty, yourLogFile must be older
doStuffWithYourLogFile
fi

You can stick some more logic round that and you should have what you want.

HTH