# Listing files in a particular format

**URL:** <https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025>\
**Category:** Shell Programming and Scripting\
**Created:** [August 23, 2011, 8:10am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025 "2011-08-23T08:10:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/manubatham20/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/u/manubatham20)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 8:10am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/1 "2011-08-23T08:10:30Z")

</div>

Hi,

My unix version is as follows:

```nohighlight
uame -a

HP-UX server-name B.11.11 U 9000/800 2329770924 unlimited-user license

```

I just want to get file listing is a particular format listed below.

```nohighlight
name permission set(octal) size date (mon dd, yyyy)

```

I am trying to use the following command.

```nohighlight
ll | egrep -v '^d' | awk '{ printf "%-29s\t\t%s\t%5s\t\t%s %s,%s\n", $9,$1,$5,$6,$7,$8 }'

```

But its giving me output like follows-

```nohighlight
a.out -rw------- 0 Aug 5,06:55

```

While the required output is

```nohighlight
a.out 600 0 Aug 5, 2011

```

Also its giving me a 'total' line in the beginning while using above given command. I also don't want that line in my output.

Please help me achieve output in desired format.

Many thanks,  
Manu

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![itkamaraj](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/itkamaraj/32/1880_2.png) [@itkamaraj](https://community.unix.com/u/itkamaraj)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 8:21am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/2 "2011-08-23T08:21:53Z")

</div>

```nohighlight
ll | awk ' !/^d/ { if(NR>1) {printf "%-29s\t\t%s\t%5s\t\t%s %s,%s\n", $9,$1,$5,$6,$7,$8} }'

```

better to post your ls command output and the required output format

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/manubatham20/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/u/manubatham20)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:02am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/3 "2011-08-23T09:02:59Z")

</div>

Thanks.

Your code removed the first line, where total blocks are written.

Please also help me achieving file creation date in mon dd, yyyy format instead of mon dd hh:mm format.

Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![panyam](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/panyam/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@panyam](https://community.unix.com/u/panyam)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:17am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/4 "2011-08-23T09:17:45Z")

</div>

A clue to get the year!,

if the file is created on the current year, then the file timestamp will be shown in hh:mm format.

So, try something like this:

```nohighlight
 
ls -l | awk '{$(NF-1)=$(NF-1)~/:/?"2011":$(NF-1);print}'

```

You have to add the above code in your requirement.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/manubatham20/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/u/manubatham20)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:26am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/5 "2011-08-23T09:26:39Z")

</div>

Hi Panyam,

Thanks for your consideration.

But it's not always true, that if file is created only in the current year, then only time will be show.

Consider the case that today is "2nd Jan 2011", and file is created on "29th Dec 2010". Year has been changed since the time of file creation (2010 to 2011). But still it will show the date in dd mon hh:mm (29 Dec 3:54) format. Kindly consider this case as well.

Regards,  
Manu

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![itkamaraj](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/itkamaraj/32/1880_2.png) [@itkamaraj](https://community.unix.com/u/itkamaraj)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:47am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/6 "2011-08-23T09:47:29Z")

</div>

Manu,

If you post the ls command output and the required output format, then you can get answers soon.

Always give the clear input and output format. 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![panyam](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/panyam/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@panyam](https://community.unix.com/u/panyam)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:55am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/7 "2011-08-23T09:55:53Z")

</div>

Hello,

I'm sorry I did not read it fully. Indeed, it's not creation time but modified time.

man ls , gives

```nohighlight
 
If the time of last modification is greater than six months ago, or any time in the future, the year is substituted for the hour and minute of the modification time.

```

So, need to find a logic here to get the years!!!.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/manubatham20/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/u/manubatham20)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 10:10am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/8 "2011-08-23T10:10:26Z")

</div>

Hi,

I think I have clearly stated my requirements. But if still required the output to make the things more clear, I am posting it as below--

Right now my output is like below-

```nohighlight
ll | awk ' !/^d/ { if(NR>1) {printf "%-29s\t\t%s\t%5s\t\t%s %s,%s\n", $9,$1,$5,$6,$7,$8} }'

a.out -rw------- 0 Aug 5,06:55
dir_str.txt -rw------- 35 Aug 19,10:23
dont_make_test ---------- 0 Aug 23,10:03
get_dir_stru.sh -rwx------ 599 Aug 5,11:02
mm -rwx------ 85 Aug 23,09:34

```

But he output I want should be like this

```nohighlight
a.out 600 0 Aug 5, 2011
dir_str.txt 600 35 Aug 19, 2011
dont_make_test 000 0 Aug 23, 2011
get_dir_stru.sh 700 599 Aug 5, 2011
mm 700 85 Aug 23, 2011

```

And I am sorry Panyam that I mentioned "creation time", yes it's modification time.

Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![panyam](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/panyam/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@panyam](https://community.unix.com/u/panyam)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 10:28am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/9 "2011-08-23T10:28:19Z")

</div>

Hello,

I'm sorry but I was not much helpful. I searched few things in the forum and found this below useful.

```nohighlight
 
#!/usr/bin/ksh
typeset -Z2 d m
Jan=1 Feb=2 Mar=3 Apr=4 May=5 Jun=6 Jul=7 Aug=8 Sep=9 Oct=10 Nov=11 Dec=12
date "+%Y %m" | read year month
for i in `ls -l|awk '!/^d/{print $NF}` ; do
        line=$(ls -dl $i)
        line=${line##+([!])+([])}
        line=${line##+([!])+([])}
        line=${line##+([!])+([])}
        line=${line##+([!])+([])}
        line=${line##+([!])+([])}
        set -A stamp $line
        d=${stamp[1]}
        eval m=\$${stamp[0]}
        y=${stamp[2]}
        ((${#y} != 4)) && ((y=year-(m>month)))
        echo $i ${stamp[0]} $d","$y
done
exit 0
 

```

You might need to figure it out on how to add file permissions and other fields to the output as required.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/manubatham20/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/u/manubatham20)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 10:43am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/10 "2011-08-23T10:43:25Z")

</div>

Hi Panyam,

I forget to mention, my shell is 'sh', so will the code given by you will work on that shell?

Thanks,  
Manu

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dude2cool](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/dude2cool/32/2380_2.png) [@dude2cool](https://community.unix.com/u/dude2cool)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 11:58am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/11 "2011-08-23T11:58:36Z")

</div>

Try this and see if returns the desired output:

```nohighlight
ll|awk -v "year=`date '+%Y'`" '$8!~":"{if(NR>1)printf"%-29s\t\t%s\t%5s\t\t%s %s,%s\n", $9,$1,$5,$6,$7,$8} {if(NR>1)printf"%-29s\t\t%s\t%5s\t\t%s %s,%s\n", $9,$1,$5,$6,$7, year}'

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/manubatham20/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/u/manubatham20)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 12:27pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/12 "2011-08-23T12:27:38Z")

</div>

Hehe,

This is not the exact solution. I am not that much efficient in Unix coding. But by seeing your code, I came to know, that you have searched : in $8 parameter and if it not found, then you printed $8 as it is (as it will be already a year format) and if its found, you replaced $8 with current year (that is WRONG, we need to compare the months as well in that case, if month of file modification is greater than the current month of the current year, then we need to do year=year-1 else year=year). How this will help you (eventually me 🙂 ) to write a code for that.

I appreciate your efforts. But whatever you have done can be done by the code below as well--

```nohighlight
ll | awk -v "yr=`date '+%Y'`" ' !/^d/ { if(NR>1) {printf "%-29s\t\t%s\t%5s\t\t%s %s,", $9,$1,$5,$6,$7}; if(index($8,":")==3) { print yr } else { print $8 
} }'

```

Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dude2cool](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/dude2cool/32/2380_2.png) [@dude2cool](https://community.unix.com/u/dude2cool)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/13 "2011-08-23T12:49:56Z")

</div>

Can you past a line from ls that you think the awk code will not work against? i.e paste a line from your ls output where "month of file modification is greater than the current month of the current year"? Maybe I can modify the logic.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/manubatham20/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@manubatham20](https://community.unix.com/u/manubatham20)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/14 "2011-08-23T15:46:53Z")

</div>

Well, for that I need to change the date/time of the system, for that privilidges not granted to me.

Just set your system date to '29-Dec-2010', make a file, now again set your date to '2-Jan-2011', now execute your command. Let me know if your code work perfectly.

Regards,  
Manu

---------- Post updated 08-24-11 at 01:16 AM ---------- Previous update was 08-23-11 at 10:28 PM ----------

```nohighlight
#!/bin/sh
ll | awk -v "yr=`date '+%Y'`" -v "mnth=`date '+%m'`" 'BEGIN { split("Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec", MON, "|"); for(N=1; N<=12; N++) I[MON[N]]=N; } !/^d/ { if(NR>1) {printf "%-29s\t\t%s\t%5s\t\t%s %s,", $9,$1,$5,$6,$7}; if(index($8,":")==3) { if(I[$6]>mnth) { print yr-1 } else { print yr }} else { print $8 } }'

```

The above has fulfilled my purpose.

Thanks all for your time and support.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![panyam](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/panyam/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@panyam](https://community.unix.com/u/panyam)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/listing-files-in-a-particular-format/294025/15 "2011-08-24T05:09:14Z")

</div>

Hello Manu,

I'm more than happy to see that the code worked for you.

Here is a bit modifed version of your code , which gives the permission in the needed format.

```nohighlight
 
 
#!/bin/sh
ll | awk -v "yr=`date '+%Y'`" -v "mnth=`date '+%m'`" 'BEGIN { split("Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec", MON, "|"); for(N=1; N<=12; N++) I[MON[N]]=N; a["---"]=0;a["--x"]=1;a["-w-"]=2;a["-wx"]=3;a["r--"]=4;a["r-x"]=5;a["rw-"]=6;a["rwx"]=7}
function val(str)
{
u=substr(str,2,3);
g=substr(str,5,3);
o=substr(str,8,3);
r=aa[g]a[o]
return r
} !/^d/ { if(NR>1) {printf "%-29s\t\t%s\t%5s\t\t%s %s,", $9,val($1),$5,$6,$7}; if(index($8,":")==3) { if(I[$6]>mnth) { print yr-1 } else { print yr }} else { print $8 } }'

```

Your requirement definetly helped us in inproving our skills!!!