Try something like this--it does the mtime >= atime comparison for you.
#!/bin/bash
#
# usage: $0 <my-biff-file>
#
while /bin/true; do {
VALUE=`echo $1 | perl -lane '{\
use File::stat;\
$a=stat($_); \
if ( $a->mtime() >= $a->atime() ) {\
print "new"; exit;\
} else {\
print "old"; exit;};\
}'`
if test $VALUE = "new" ;
then
# play a sound
else
# do something else
fi
sleep 30 ;
} ; done
On Sun, Apr 08, 2001 at 05:06:19PM -0400, Rich Lafferty wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 08, 2001 at 10:34:38PM +0200, Johannes Huettemeister
>([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> > I got the same prob. All mail checkers seem to work with the spool
> > file, so they only check if the file is == 0. But you need a proggie
> > that checks if the size of the mailbox or mailfolder has changed.
>
> Er, no. You want to check if the mtime of the file is greater than the
> atime. This is also how most mail-checkers like biff work. I don't
> know of any mail checker that indicates that new mail has arrived
> only if the mailbox was empty beforehand.
>
> To the original poster: If you're using procmail to sort your incoming
> mail, you may as well have procmail launch the command to play the
> sound as well.
>
> -Rich
>
> --
> ------------------------------ Rich Lafferty ---------------------------
> Sysadmin/Programmer, Instructional and Information Technology Services
> Concordia University, Montreal, QC (514) 848-7625
> ------------------------- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------
--
"Babbage himself acknowledged Jacquard's precedence: when
he presented the concept for his Analytical Engine at the
Turin conference, he brought with him a silk portrait of
Jacquard that had been produced by an automatic loom
programmed by no fewer than twenty-four thousand cards.
Even by today's standards, that's a lot of code."
- Jim Holt,
The New Yorker 2001/3/5
