Im doing some unix scripting and would like to, based off a file input calculate date. What we have is what is called infile in the script it reads certain fields within this "infile" the infile is just a txt document set so that our script can read from it to determine which files to delete or when to delete them. Right now we have prev-year= expr date +%Y -1 then throughout the code it use this math to determine if it needs to delete files and it gets its answer if the file date is +%Y -1 and true well we have more detail within there but for now ou should get the idea. I want to add file directories and file names to the master list also a new filed # of days to deletion then based off if the file has # of days then it will calculate thos days stated and delete if current date compared to deletion date is meet. Now i went to research date arithmetic and it was helpful but i dont just want to do this i want to have program read # of days till deletion and base it off that. Well that makes me think now how is it going to count down or know that 1 day went by 2 days three etc...

Learning in progress..........

what Unix platform are you in ? do you have GNU date and any other GNU tools eg Gawk?

Well, at the very least, he has AWK. It's one of two scripting environments guaranteed in POSIX.

I have ksh right now well thats what the script calls at the beginnning. What i need to do is create #of days until deletion and compare that to todays date however #of days until deletion sometimes will be 90 then when i compare 90 days from today like todays date -90 days i get negative number how do i make it go into the previous month?

Learning in progress..........

ok never mind cause i just went for a walk and thought about it. #of days will compare to #of days that went by from creation and i dont think this will be a problem lol

Learning in progress..........