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A function to find the newest file in a directory

Terminal - A function to find the newest file in a directory
newest () { DIR=${1:-'.'}; CANDIDATE=`find $DIR -type f|head -n1`; while [[ ! -z $CANDIDATE ]]; do BEST=$CANDIDATE; CANDIDATE=`find $DIR -newer "$BEST" -type f|head -n1`; done; echo "$BEST"; }
2010-02-04 12:40:44
User: shadycraig
Functions: echo head
1
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A function to find the newest file in a directory

Works recusivley in the specified dir or '.' if none given.

Repeatedly calls 'find' to find a newer file, when no newer files exist you have the newest.

In this case 'newest' means most recently modified. To find the most recently created change -newer to -cnewer.

Show sample output | Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Alternatives

There are 7 alternatives - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
newest () { find ${1:-\.} -type f |xargs ls -lrt ; }
2010-02-04 14:52:17
User: mobidyc
Functions: find ls xargs
Tags: bash find files recursive
3
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A function to find the newest file in a directory
Comments (3) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
find /path/to/dir -type f -printf "%T@|%p\n" 2>/dev/null | sort -n | tail -n 1| awk -F\| '{print $2}'
2010-02-04 15:13:27
User: glennie
Functions: awk find sort tail
Tags: bash find files recursive
2
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A function to find the newest file in a directory
Comments (0) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
newest () { candidate=''; for i in "$@"; do [[ -f $i ]] || continue; [[ -z $candidate || $i -nt $candidate ]] && candidate="$i"; done; echo "$candidate"; }
2009-10-29 17:35:01
User: johnraff
Functions: echo
Tags: bash files
1
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A function to find the newest file of a set.

Usage example:

newest Desktop/*

Replace "-nt" with "-ot" for oldest.

Run

shopt -s dotglob

first to include dotfiles.

Comments (0) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

The manpage find says that this will show the most recently *modified* file, which may not be the most recently created. You could also just use ls:

ls -lrt

The recursive aspect of your solution is neat though. +1

Comment by bwoodacre 172 weeks and 1 day ago

Thanks bwoodacre, I wasn't clear on this but that was my interpretation of 'newest'. I have stated the assumption in the description now.

Comment by shadycraig 172 weeks ago

Your point of view

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