Organized logging in Bash - bash

Question

I have this script that deletes files 7 days or older and then logs them to a folder. It logs and deletes everything correctly but when I open up the log file for viewing, its very sloppy.
log=$HOME/Deleted/$(date)
find $HOME/OldLogFiles/ -type f -mtime +7 -delete -print > "$log"
The log file is difficult to read
Example File Output: (when opened in notepad)
/home/u0146121/OldLogFiles/file1.txt/home/u0146121/OldLogFiles/file2.txt/home/u0146121/OldLogFiles/file3.txt
Is there anyway to log the file nicer and cleaner? Maybe with the Filename, date deleted, and how old it was?

Answer 1

try
log=$HOME/Deleted/$(date);
# change it to echo -e and insert new line if needed
find $HOME/OldLogFiles/ -type f -mtime +7 -exec echo {} \; > "$log"

Answer 2

Use logger for logging and leave the actual log handling to syslog and logrotate.

Answer 3

In you deletion script you can add 2 variables at the top, lets call them "timeDate" and "logDestination". They would look like this:
timeDate=$(date "+%d/%m/%Y %T")
logDestination=/home/$USER/.deleteLog; touch $logDestination
Now the $(date "+%d/%m/%Y %T") part simply gets the current date and time. It goes off to get the system date as; date (+%d) then the month and year (%m) (%Y) b.t.w the capital Y returns a full year as in YYYY. It then stores that date and time in the variable for later use.
The logDestination variable is holding a directory or file path for us, pointing at a file called .deleteLog . Now the touch part that follows isn't entirely necessary but it will make the file exist if it does not exist or has been deleted or renamed by accident.
In bash scripting and in a host of programming languages one makes methods or functions, which are just simply sections of code that usually do just one job. This function below is designed to write a message to a logfile:
## Logging function
function _logger () {
echo -e "$timeDate $user - $#\r" >> $log
}
A simply explanation of the function is it is able to receive a form of information. If you look at the above function, note the "$#" symbol this is a placeholder if you like, it will put any and all strings (text) you point at the function. Here is a more cut down version of a function that can receive several strings or input:
function _example () {
echo -e "$#"
}
To call this function and give it a message we can literally type (anywhere under the function in your script):
example "hello"
This string "hello" is given to the function and the echo line in the function outputs the "hello" to your terminal or screen. The -e in the echo line helps the echo to distinguish active parts, Tho best use "man echo" to give you a understanding of its behavior modification.
So back to your script.
Lets say you have a line that deletes the contents of a directory (I advise care and caution and discourage such line but meh).
after it has done a delete you can call;
_logger "deletion of file (or $FILE) successful."
and the _logger function will nicely place the date time, message and start a new line for you (\r). The $user in the function is placed by your current view. as in it will say your username.
Functions can be called numerous times, saving you code duplication and makes the scripts look neater.

Answer 4

You're asking a few things here...
Why does my log file look funny in notepad?
Probably because of the tool you're using to view it, but it's hard to say without more information. Notepad is a Windows application, and Windows uses a strategy than unix for ending lines in a text file. If you want to know for sure, use a tool like hexdump or od to see what's really going on inside your file. And as was suggested in comments, head filename.log on the unix host may show you what you expect, in which case you will have confirmed the line ending theory.
If Notepad is your tool of choice, then we can show you how to convert the files so that they're more compatible with Windows. Otherwise, let us know what you really need.
How do I include this extra data in my log?
You're asking for a few items:
filename - easy enough, you've already got that.
date deleted - easy enough, you just need a timestamp for each of the entries.
age of file - harder. Will the timestamp of the file be sufficient, or do you want, for example, the date extracted from the first line of the file itself? If the latter, you'll need to include a sample in your question. I'll go with the former for now.
First off, bash version 4 and up lets you use time formats as part of a printf, so you could do the following:
printf -v log '%s/Deleted/%(%F)T' "$HOME"
But honestly, I think this was a hack, and what you really want is a single text file that gets rotated using some other tool.
log=/var/log/whatever.log
The "some other tool" will depend on your operating system. In FreeBSD, look in /etc/newsyslog.conf. In Linux, refer to the documentation for your distribution, looking for things like "logrotate".
The output from your find command can be the files which were successfully deleted, but you don't have to have just filenames. Consider the following:
find "$HOME/OldLogFiles/" -type f -mtime +7 -ls -delete
The output of this is the entire ls line, before the file is deleted. It includes the file's date and inode number. Preface this with a timestamp, and you may be good to go:
find "$HOME/OldLogFiles/" -type f -mtime +7 -ls -delete | sed "s/^/[$(printf '%(%F %T)T')] /"
Or if you prefer to do this without sed:
while read line; do
printf '[%(%F %T)T] %s\n' -1 "$line"
done < <(find "$HOME/OldLogFiles/" -type f -mtime +7 -ls -delete)
In this version, the -1 is interpreted by printf's %T as "now".
Redirect to $log as you like.
Finally, and this is probably the "best" option, is to avoid managing logfiles in bash entirely, and use your system's logger command instead. The POSIX version is pretty bare-bones, but you can control things syslog style in BSD, Linux, etc.