Re: Does find subdir -printf "%A\n" a bad example which is mentioned in the documentation?

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>]

On 20120328_191216, Regid Ichira wrote:
>     $ zgrep -A3 '%A%p' /usr/share/info/find.info.gz
>          newest=$(find subdir -newer timestamp -printf "%A%p\n" |
>                     sort -n |
>                     tail -1 |
>                     cut -d: -f2- )
> 
> is taken from findutil's (4.4.2-4) documentation.  It doesn't work
> here:
> 
>     $ mkdir -v subdir
>     mkdir: created directory `subdir'
>     $ touch subdir/file
>     $ find subdir -printf "%A%p\n"
>     %p
>     %p
>     $ find subdir -printf "%A\n"
>     %\n%\n$
> 
> I think the documentation's example assumes "%A\n" is supposed to
> print time information as is.  While, in fact, there must be a
> modifier after the 'A'.  Does
> 
>     find subdir -printf "%A\n"
> 
> print time information for you?  Am I right that the documentation's
> example assume it should work as is?  
>   Does the example also bad with respect to "%p"?  If so, what is the
> correct formatting?

 find subdir -printf "%Ap\n" prints AM or PM depending on the file's 
access time in the local time zone of the computer. You string together
a bunch of %A each followed by a single letter from the list of letters
just below the %A under -printf in the man page to get a useful printing
of the file access time. i.e. there must be a 'k' and 'k' must be one
of the characters from that list ( including k can be @ even though @
is above the column heading of allowed k values ) I know this is confusing.
Try testing with 
    find subdir -printf "%A@ %Ap\n" 
and see a somewhat useless but educational, I hope.
In place of the space in this trial, put a hyphen [-]
Try 
    find subdir -printf "%A@ %Ap %f\n"
to include the base name of the file without the path from subdir.
Look at
    find subdir -printf "%i %b %M %n %U %G %s %TY%Tm%Td_%TH%TM%TS %p\n"
This is one I use and find convenient for some work. Figure out how it
works, and then write, and contribute a better man page. I would have
appreciated it when I was learning, but now that I know the truth I
can't see a better way to say it than is already there.

Enjoy ?-)
-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net