Use the time in a script?

[Rick Jones]

In article <14183 at hydra.gatech.EDU> ce1zzes at prism.gatech.EDU (Eric Sheppard) writes:
>I would like to make sure that a script or program is not executed during
>a certain period of every hour.  Is there an elegant method to achieve this,
>short of an additional C program?

The "date" command can be made to give you any selected date or time info with
a format string.  e.g. date +%M prints the minutes (check-out the man page!).

Thus to block operation between say 20 & 40 mins past each hour:

	minmins=20 maxmins=40

	mins=`date +%M`
	if expr $mins \> $minmins \& $mins \< $maxmins > /dev/null
	then
		echo No dice
		exit 1
	fi

Adjust the logic to suit.

-- 
Rick Jones			The definition of atomic:
Tetra Ltd.				from the Greek meaning "indivisible"
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rick at tetrauk.uucp			an atomic explosion?