Copy if different and rename as date and timestamp

Question

So I have a file that I want to copy if it has been modified. I want to save it as date and time in it's new location.

mv my_file.db $(date +%F)

This command will move it and set the date as the name, but it removes the extension. I have 3 different file extensions I want to move. I also want to have the timestamp as I will be copying multiple times per day.

Input:

sdfgdg.a
abdfgs.b
dfgdfg.c

So by running...

mv * ../Folder

Should produce:

Folder/sdfgdg-2015-01-02-14:50:00.a
Folder/abdfgs-2015-01-02-14:50:00.b
Folder/dfgdfg-2015-01-02-14:50:00.c

`mv foo.db $(date +%F).db`? if you want to preserve the extension, you have to include it in the target filename... — Marc B, Jan 12 '16 at 19:39
@MarcB I thought of that but the extensions change and are not known. You're also missing the time. — User, Jan 12 '16 at 19:40
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/965053/extract-filename-and-extension-in-bash — Marc B, Jan 12 '16 at 19:41
you get out of `date` what you tell it to provide, since your example only had %F, that's what I used as well. if you want a different format, then tell `date` about it... — Marc B, Jan 12 '16 at 19:42
Do you want to use the current time or the file's modified time? — glenn jackman, Jan 12 '16 at 20:02

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 13 '16 at 18:34

Add this function to your ~/.bashrc and source it (source ~/.bashrc) or login with a second session.

function mymv() {
  if [[ $# -lt 2 ]]; then
     echo "Syntax error: missing aruments"
     return 1
  fi

  target="${@: -1}"     # last argument
  d="$(date +%F-%T)"

  while [[ $# -ge 2 ]]; do
    file="$1"
    mv -v "$file" "$target/${file%.*}-$d.${file##*.}"
    shift
  done
}

Usage:

mymv file ... directory

Example:

mymv * ../Folder

Copy if different and rename as date and timestamp

1 Answers1