I want to create a cron job that looks at a directory and sends me an
email if a new file (or any changes) have been made since the last time
I checked.
Does anyone know of a way to do this?

Thanks,
Borf

On 23.08.2006, Borf <anthony@station5.net> wrote:
> I want to create a cron job that looks at a directory and sends me an
> email if a new file (or any changes) have been made since the last time
> I checked.
> Does anyone know of a way to do this?

And what kind of problem do you have with this task?

--
<Kosma> Niektórzy lubi± dozziego...
<Kosma> Oczywi¶cie szanujemy ich.
Stanislaw Klekot

No problem, I just don't know how to do this and I am looking for .
I am running ksh on a HP Unix.

Stachu 'Dozzie' K. wrote:
> On 23.08.2006, Borf <anthony@station5.net> wrote:
> > I want to create a cron job that looks at a directory and sends me an
> > email if a new file (or any changes) have been made since the last time
> > I checked.
> > Does anyone know of a way to do this?
>
> And what kind of problem do you have with this task?
>
> --
> <Kosma> Niektórzy lubi± dozziego...
> <Kosma> Oczywi¶cie szanujemy ich.
> Stanislaw Klekot

In article <1156366453.600127.192660@i3g2000cwc.googlegroups. com>,
"Borf" <anthony@station5.net> wrote:

> No problem, I just don't know how to do this and I am looking for .
> I am running ksh on a HP Unix.

List the directory and save the result to a file. List it again and
compare the new list with the old one. If there's a difference, send an
email.


> Stachu 'Dozzie' K. wrote:
> > On 23.08.2006, Borf <anthony@station5.net> wrote:
> > > I want to create a cron job that looks at a directory and sends me an
> > > email if a new file (or any changes) have been made since the last time
> > > I checked.
> > > Does anyone know of a way to do this?
> >
> > And what kind of problem do you have with this task?
> >
> > --
> > <Kosma> Niektórzy lubi± dozziego...
> > <Kosma> Oczywi¶cie szanujemy ich.
> > Stanislaw Klekot

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

Have you done this before? Do you have a sample script?

Is there a way to check the directory to see the last time anything in
it was changed?
does the directory maintain a timestamp?


Barry Margolin wrote:
> In article <1156366453.600127.192660@i3g2000cwc.googlegroups. com>,
> "Borf" <anthony@station5.net> wrote:
>
> > No problem, I just don't know how to do this and I am looking for .
> > I am running ksh on a HP Unix.
>
> List the directory and save the result to a file. List it again and
> compare the new list with the old one. If there's a difference, send an
> email.
>
>
> > Stachu 'Dozzie' K. wrote:
> > > On 23.08.2006, Borf <anthony@station5.net> wrote:
> > > > I want to create a cron job that looks at a directory and sends me an
> > > > email if a new file (or any changes) have been made since the last time
> > > > I checked.
> > > > Does anyone know of a way to do this?
> > >
> > > And what kind of problem do you have with this task?
> > >
> > > --
> > > <Kosma> Niektórzy lubi± dozziego...
> > > <Kosma> Oczywi¶cie szanujemy ich.
> > > Stanislaw Klekot
>
> --
> Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
> Arlington, MA
> *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
> *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

In article <1156514104.138609.324670@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
"Borf" <anthony@station5.net> wrote:

> Have you done this before? Do you have a sample script?

No I haven't. I figure the script should take a good scripter under an
hour, maybe a bit longer for someone less experienced.

Use: ls -l directory > filename

to save the contents of the directory to a file. And

cmp -s filename prevfilename

to compare the file just created with the previous one.

>
> Is there a way to check the directory to see the last time anything in
> it was changed?
> does the directory maintain a timestamp?

The directory has a modification time, but that will only be updated
when files are added, removed, or renamed. It won't tell you if a file
within the directory was modified in place.

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

> Stachu 'Dozzie' K. wrote:
>> On 23.08.2006, Borf <anthony@station5.net> wrote:
>>> I want to create a cron job that looks at a directory and sends me an
>>> email if a new file (or any changes) have been made since the last time
>>> I checked.
>>> Does anyone know of a way to do this?
>> And what kind of problem do you have with this task?
>>
Borf wrote:
> No problem, I just don't know how to do this and I am looking for .
> I am running ksh on a HP Unix.


A possibility is to use find to compare one files timestamp against those
of the files in the directory. Note, this will not detect deleted files
and unless your find supports -cnewer and -newer, it will not detect files
with changed permissions or ownership.

One sample not tested:

$ cat dirck
#!/bin/ksh

ProgName=${0##*/}

# Directory to check
DirToCk="$1"
[[ $DirToCk == /* && -d $DirToCk ]] || {
echo "Usage: $ProgName <full path to directory to ck>" >&2
exit 1
}


# place to store timestamp files
LastCkDir=/usr/local/lib/$ProgName
[[ -d $LastCkDir ]] || mkdir $LastCkDir || {
echo "$ProgName: Time Stamp directory, '$LastCkDir' does not exist and could not be created" >&2
exit 1
}

# time stamp file (replace pathname /'s with _'s)

# if HP's ksh supports substitution use this line, else use tr line
#_Dir_To_Ck_=${DirToCk//\//_}
_Dir_To_Ck_=$(echo $DirToCk | tr / _ )
TimeStampFile=$LastCkDir/$_Dir_To_Ck_
[[ -f $TimeStampFile ]] || {
echo "ProgName: First Check of $DirToCk, can only create timestamp file" >&2
touch $TimeStampFile && exit 99
echo "$ProgName: could not create timestamp file '$TimeStampFile'" >&2
exit 1
}

# HP's find may not have -cnewer, -newer can be substituted
# but will not detect permission or ownership changes

# may wish to add "-maxdepth 1" if desired and supported by HP find
# may wish to add "-type f" to limit checking to ordinary files
ExtraOpts="-maxdepth 1 -type f"

find $DirToCk ${ExtraOpts} -cnewer $TimeStampFile -ls

touch $TimeStampFile
exit $?

Store the ctime of the directory. If the ctime happens to be the
current time, wait at least one second, and try again, repeating as
necessary until one obtains a ctime from the directory that is not
the current time. When one wants to compare in the future, check the
ctime. If it hasn't changed, then the *directory* hasn't changed
(and file(s) haven't been added to the directory). Note that
strictly speaking this will satisfy the specified requirement of
detecting changes to the directory - but that may not be precisely
what is desired/intended. E.g. changing a file in a directory is not
the same as changing the directory.

This also doesn't cover filesystems that are not of a "UNIX" type,
bypassing security or system integrity, etc.

Borf wrote:
> I want to create a cron job that looks at a directory and sends me an
> email if a new file (or any changes) have been made since the last time
> I checked.
> Does anyone know of a way to do this?

Le Sat, 26 Aug 2006 21:42:55 -0700, Michael Paoli a écrit:
> Borf wrote:
>> I want to create a cron job that looks at a directory and sends me an
>> email if a new file (or any changes) have been made since the last time
>> I checked.
>> Does anyone know of a way to do this?

> Store the ctime of the directory. If the ctime happens to be the
> current time, wait at least one second, and try again, repeating as
> necessary until one obtains a ctime from the directory that is not
> the current time. When one wants to compare in the future, check the
> ctime. If it hasn't changed, then the *directory* hasn't changed
> (and file(s) haven't been added to the directory). Note that
> strictly speaking this will satisfy the specified requirement of
> detecting changes to the directory - but that may not be precisely
> what is desired/intended. E.g. changing a file in a directory is not
> the same as changing the directory.
>
> This also doesn't cover filesystems that are not of a "UNIX" type,
> bypassing security or system integrity, etc.

For this side problem you would store not only the ctime but also
some "crossproofs" like sh1sum md5sum, 'du -s' of the dirs and so on,
as we don't know much about the env which the OP wants to survey
not much more can be said yet :-)

Though, if it is for a desktop simple control the script would
be almost trivial but, if it is for a real world survey on systems
there are certainly better choices in many IDS tools than to reinvent
an heptagonal wheel in seven lines of script ;-)