File modification time comparison

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi All,

I have two files (given below) each exists under different paths. I want to compare the modification time stamp of file1.txt is lessthan the modification time of file2.txt.

  month1=`ls -l file1.txt | awk '{ print $6}'`
  date1=`ls -file1.txt | awk '{ print $7}'`
  time1=`ls -lfile1.txt | awk '{ print $8}' | cut -f 1 -d ":"`

  month2=`ls -l file2.txt | awk '{ print $6}'`
  date2=`ls -l file2.txt | awk '{ print $7}'`
  time2=`ls -l file2.txt | awk '{ print $8}' | cut -f 1 -d ":"`

i thought of perform the comparision by checking the month1 is lesser than month2, but what i have here is String (in which i dont know anyway to perform lessthan operations). I can use a case statement and assign the 1,2 ... 12, like case $month1; Jan) month1final=1 and case $month2; Jan) month2final=1 .. etc. then now i can do lessthan operation.

Is there any simple solution to compare the modification time of two files. Please provide your thoughts. Let me know if i am not clear.

2

Could you not use the test -ot and -nt options?

i.e.

       file1 -nt file2
            True if file1 is newer than file2.
       file1 -ot file2
            True if file1 is older than file2.