On Sat 16 May 2026 at 16:25:41 (-0400), Karen Lewellen wrote:
> Hi Greg,
> Thanks, I am aiming for solidity here.
> I am using a screen reader.
> The text editor wording is a bit confusing.
> Also, because I create many text files in a given day, my goal is very
> tight here, but it seems I cannot provide actual dates, just a number
> of days window?
> There is not a syntax for say the window of 12 may, say 5 days ago until
> 14 may, which would be 2 days ago?
> if I follow using . provides my home directory, where my files are
> stored, is that correct? This is not my desktop, but a service.
> I do understand that I should write say "*.txt"
> However I need to be sure I have corrected the mistake you noted,
> should it be namef with the dash character?
> Your extras with print seem profoundly complex.
> My goal is clear text, that my screen reader can manage, when I use
> its own review mode.
> Does that make more sense?
> My goals are very tight, as I want to locate a file I saved within
> this small window, with screen output that my talking computer
> manages.
I use a bash function for this task. I've attached it as some of the
lines are a bit long. I have it in my ~/.bashrc, making it always
available.
You can try it out by saving the attachment, and then typing:
$ bash -c '. ./find-between; find-between today yesterday ./ | less'
which will give you a list of recent files in this directory,
piped into less as there may be many files in the list.
The function is documented, as can be seen by typing:
$ bash -c '. ./find-between; find-between'
Usage: find-between timedate timedate top-of-trees …
finds files under top-of-trees with modification timestamps between
the two timedates given (free format, in any order; hint: '2000-12-31
11:59'
is a simple format that works). The output is sorted by filename.
$
If you add the find-between file to your .bashrc, then you only have
to type the function name:
$ find-between
$ find-between today yesterday ./ | less
Obviously you would replace today and yesterday with real dates/times.
Their format is whatever is acceptable to date --d (see man date).
The order doesn't matter.
All files are listed, but it's a simple matter to grep the outout:
$ find-between today yesterday ./ | grep 'txt$' | less
though you lose the header line as it's unlikely to match:
From 2026-05-15 21:57:42-05:00 to 2026-05-16 21:57:42-05:00
20260516-081119.08 2136 .Xresources
[ … lots more filenames … ]
[Aside: replace the echo commands if they offend you.
I have msgerr and msgout functions in their place.]
Cheers,
David.
function find-between {
[ -z "$3" ] && echo "Usage: ${FUNCNAME[0]} timedate timedate top-of-trees …
finds files under top-of-trees with modification timestamps between
the two timedates given (free format, in any order; hint: '2000-12-31
11:59'
is a simple format that works). The output is sorted by filename." &&
return 1
local Timea="$(date --rfc-3339=seconds --date "$1")"
[ -z "$Timea" ] && return 2
local Timeb="$(date --rfc-3339=seconds --date "$2")"
[ -z "$Timeb" ] && return 2
shift 2
[ "$Timea" = "$Timeb" ] && msgerr "Times are the same (one minute
resolution)" && return 1
[ "$Timea" \> "$Timeb" ] && local Swap="$Timea" && Timea="$Timeb" &&
Timeb="$Swap" # A less then B
echo "From $Timea to $Timeb"
find "$@" -newermt "$Timea" -a -not -newermt "$Timeb" -type f -printf
'%TY%Tm%Td-%TH%TM%.5TS%11s %P\n' | sort -k 3
}
