Shell script to monitor new file in a directory and mail the file content

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi

I am looking for a help in designing a bash script on linux which can do below:-

1) Look in a specific directory for any new files
2) Mail the content of the new file

Appreciate any help

Regards
Neha

2

Use a for loop to read file names from directory, email them and move them to another directory once handled.

Here is something to start with:

#!/bin/bash

dir="/path_to_your_directory/"

for file in ${dir}/*
do
        mkdir -p "${dir}/HANDLED"
        [[ "$file" =~ HANDLED ]] && continue
        mailx -s "Subject" user@domain.com < "$file"
        mv "$file" "${dir}/HANDLED/"
done
1 Like
3

Thanks Yoda for the instant reply.
I have tested the script, it works as desired.

However is it possible, not to move txt files to new directory and identify new file based on some mechanism - like comparing the date stamp from last reported file or so.

Thanks
Neha

4

Another option is to have a file with the list of files that you handled and check against it each time you run your script:

for file in ${dir}/*
do
        [[ "$file" =~ handled.dat ]] && continue
        if grep -w "$file" "${dir}/handled.dat" > /dev/null 2> /dev/null
        then
                continue
        fi
        mailx -s "Subject" user@domain.com < "$file"
        printf "%s\n" "$file" | tee -a "${dir}/handled.dat"
done
1 Like
5

How about linking the file instead of moving it?

dir="/path_to_your_directory/"

mkdir -p "${dir}/HANDLED" || exit 1
cd $dir || exit 1

for file in *
do
        [ "$FILE" = "HANDLED" ] && continue
        # Skip files which are already linked
        [ -h "HANDLED/$FILE" ] && continue

        mailx -s "Subject" user@domain.com < "$file"
        ln -s "../$FILE" HANDLED/$FILE
done
1 Like
6

The best way to monitor filesystem events is incron (a cron-like utility for filesystem events). I have a script that kicks off when something is written to the anonymous ftp jail (using the write-close flag if I recall correctly) to move the files elsewhere. I also have one that handles web page input without using CGI and the security risks that come with it.

inotify - get your file system supervised

Mike