Shell script to read filename and pick most recent date by timestamp

I currently backup a MySQL docker container using a shell script, it dumps the mysql file into a relative directory, such as..

set-e TODAY=`date +"%d%b%Y"` mysqldump -uroot -p"$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD" -h $MYSQL_HOST --all-databases | gzip > /data/mysqldb/$TODAY/all-databases-$TODAY.sql.gz 

I need to create a restore script that will read the $TODAY and determine which is most recent. How do I do this? :S

1 Answer

This is the approach i used. I have a working backup script with it.

CD into the backup DIR.

cd backup_dir && ls -t | head -n 2 

-t -> sort by modification time, newest first

In a script:

LAST_2_BACKUPS=$(ls -t | head -n 2)