Backup a file with a date-time stamp

buf() { f=${1%%.*};e=${1/$f/};cp -v $1 $f-$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")$e;}

"infix" version in bash (4.x+) Remove -v to make it silent. BTW: The OP forgot to use "cat" and "nmap" ;-) I had a good laugh though.

Sample Output

$ buf a.txt
`a.txt' -> `a-20101215_104638.txt'
$ buf a.txt.gz
`a.txt.gz' -> `a-20101215_104647.txt.gz'

By: unefunge

2010-12-15 09:50:04

cp date backup date function cp

5 Alternatives + Submit Alt

Backup a file with a date-time stamp

1. you don't need to prepend the year with 20 - just use Y instead of y 2. you may want to make your function a bit more secure: buf () { cp ${1?filename not specified}{,$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)}; }
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

buf () { cp $1{,$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)}; }

unefunge · 2010-12-14 14:02:03 4
Backup a file with a date-time stamp

buf myfile.txt This is useful when you are making small but frequent changes to a file. It keeps things organised and clear for another administrator to see what changed and at what time. An overview of changes can be deduced using a simple: ls -ltr
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

buf () { filename=$1; filetime=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S); cp ${filename} ${filename}_${filetime}; }

dopeman · 2010-12-14 13:19:52 7
Backup a file with a date-time stamp

Appends the input file with the date format YYYY-MM-DD.bak. Also runs silently if you remove the -v on the cp at the end of the function.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

buf () { oldname=$1; if [ "$oldname" != "" ]; then datepart="$(date +%Y-%m-%d).bak"; firstpart=`echo $oldname | cut -d "." -f 1`; newname=`echo $oldname | sed s/$firstpart/$firstpart.$datepart/`; cp -iv ${oldname} ${newname}; fi }

juliushibert · 2012-08-15 08:31:44 5
Backup a file with a date-time stamp

even shorter (infix) version. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
$ buf() { cp -v $1 ${1/${1%%.*}/$f-$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")};}
$ buf a.txt
`a.txt' -> `a-20101215_131256.txt'
$ buf a.txt.gz
`a.txt.gz' -> `a-20101215_131305.txt.gz'
```
0

buf() { cp -v $1 ${1/${1%%.*}/$f-$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")};}

unefunge · 2010-12-15 12:16:03 4
Backup a file with a date-time stamp

This backup function preserve the file suffix allowing zsh suffix aliases and desktop default actions to work with the backup file too. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
> ls
image.jpg

> buf image.jpg; ls
image.2010-12-14.jpg
```
-3

buf () {oldname=$1; if [ "$oldname" != "" ]; then datepart=$(date +%Y-%m-%d); firstpart=`echo $oldname | cut -d "." -f 1`; newname=`echo $oldname | sed s/$firstpart/$firstpart.$datepart/`; cp -i ${oldname} ${newname}; fi }

Seebi · 2010-12-14 19:58:34 5

What Others Think

rahimhh21 · 111 weeks and 1 day ago

Perfecthomepugs · 102 weeks and 1 day ago

pugpuppies95 · 64 weeks and 2 days ago

yeneba6574 · 19 weeks ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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