bash copying log files into separate directories

Question

I'm not an expert bash, but I try solve that problem:

1. I have lots of files *.log , which I don't know creation date,
2. I need copy them to separated directories called $date_when_was_file_created eg. files created 2017-01-12 have to be moved to directory called 2017-01-12

files created 2017-02-12 have to be moved to directory called 2017-02-12

So what I have:

#!/bin/bash
dirs=`ls -la -F --full-time *.LOG | awk '{print $6}'`
filedate=`ls -la -F --full-time *.LOG | awk '{print $6}'>dat`

mkdir $dirs

for data in `cat dat`
        do echo " ther are file to be copied:--> `ls -la -F --full-time *.LOG | awk '{print $6 " " $9}' | grep $data  | awk '{print $2}'` "
                if [[ $data == $dirs ]];
                        then cp `ls -la -F --full-time *.LOG | awk '{print $6 " " $9}' | grep $data  | awk '{print $2}'` $dirs
                fi
        done

But it doesn't work, mean creates directories, but don't copy files, why? I don't know... Any suggestions please?

Answer 1

Both POSIX shell and bash provide parameter expansions to trim portions of a string. The stat utility can provide the full create time (including hours, minutes, seconds...). Simply use the stat function and trim the time from the string create time returned by stat leaving the date. Then just create a directory using the date and move your log file into it. Eg

for file in *.log                   ## loop over log files
do
    ctime=$(stat -c%y "$file")      ## get full create time
    cdate="${ctime%% *}"            ## extract YYYY-MM-DD date
    mkdir -p "$cdate"               ## create dir if it doesn't exist
    mv "$file" "$cdate"             ## move log to directory
done

Look it over and let me know if you have further questions.