Backups: one quick file backup alias

When you have a file you need to edit and you have the foresight to think, “whoa, make a copy before I destroy…” you often copy hulk.txt to hulk.txt.old (that’s using the minimum of keystrokes:

 cp hul[tab][tab] hul[tab][tab].old[enter].

Linux Backups

Well, a week later, what do you rename your next .old file? .old2? No time to put this folder into revision control? Thought so. You can inspect that last modified time on your file with stat. Experiment with this first:

echo `stat hulk.txt | awk '/Modify:/ {print $2}'`

(*snrk* did I just get you use use Awk? OMG!)

So how does that help…more precisely, you’re asking how do I add that to a backup file name? One of many ways, and I will show you the method with least typing: use an in-place shell exansion.

cp hulk.txt .hulk.txt.`stat hulk.txt | awk '/Modify:/ {print $2}'`

STOP. What wee character did I just sneek into that filename? Hold on, first write it up in an alias so you can reuse it:

alias bu="cp hulk.txt .hulk.txt.\`stat hulk.txt | awk '/Modify:/ {print $2}'\`"

Right, the backslashes (or ‘hacks’ as I nic them) keep your statement from actually evaluating the command as soon as it’s defined. The backtick is the same as saying “bash -e …stuff...”. Anyhow, now type bu and you can backup hulk.txt again. Now type ‘ls’ and see where your backup is.

No file? And no error? Oh, right the period before name hides it (sneeky). This means the next time we accidentally do a “rm *” (which often appears when you say “rm * .old” — Computer, stop, replay with magnification: rm__*__.old ). You need a good-old-fasioned:

ls -a

It’s hiding. Let’s finish up here with your alias, properly written:

alias bu="\`cp $1 .$1.\`stat $1 | awk '/Modify:/ {print $2}'\`"

Can we do it without that crazy awk? Sure:

alias bu="\`cp $1 .$1.\`stat $1 --printf %Y '\`"

Now go make a backup…right now!