how to compare file modification time in bourne shell script

[Bj|rn Munch]

In article <1990Jul23.233044.2729 at silma.com>, aab at silma.com (Andy
Burgess) writes:
|> 
|> I need to compare the modification times of two files in a bourne shell
|> script. I would like to do this without writing C code.
|> Machine is Sparcstation 1 running SunOS 4.03c
|> 
|> Thus I need a function:
|> 
|> newer file1 file2
|> 
|> that returns 0 if file1 is newer than file2 else returns 1
|> 

I needed the same thing once, and did it this way:

  test `ls -lt file1 file2 | head -1 | grep file1`

This will not work if the name file1 is a substring of file2...

It really ought to be simpler; after all, ls *has* the information you
want, the rest is just needed to translate it.

___________________________________________________________________________
Bj|rn Munch                       | Div. of Comp. Science & Telematics,
bjornmu at idt.unit.no               | Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH),
"The Man With a Pipe in His Name" | Trondheim, Norway