Adding a Unix timestamp to logs

Question

I'm using the following command to write the output of a cron job to a file.

python manage.py do_something >> /var/log/do_something_log.txt 2>&1

I want to have the Unix timestamp prepended to the name of the file, something like,

python manage.py do_something >> /var/log/{{timestamp}}_do_something_log.txt 2>&1

I tried,

python manage.py do_something >> /var/log/'date + %s'_do_something_log.txt 2>&1

but this doesn't work.

What can I try next?

Replace 'date +%s' with "$(date +%s)" and should work fine. This works fine in my bash: echo hi >./test"$(date +%s)".txt; ls *.txt — George Vasiliou
– George Vasiliou, Commented Dec 9, 2018 at 20:57
@GeorgeVasiliou that worked for me, You might want to put that as an answer. — Melissa Stewart
– Melissa Stewart, Commented Dec 9, 2018 at 21:04

wuseman · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-10 09:42:09Z

1

This Will Work:

 python manage.py do_something >> /var/log/$(date +%Y)_do_something_log.txt 2>&1

Output: /var/log/2018_do_something_log.txt

python manage.py do_something >> /var/log/$(date +%s)_do_something_log.txt 2>&1

Output: /var/log/1544438322_do_something_log.txt

answered Dec 10, 2018 at 9:42

wuseman

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you should quote the filename.