How to add a timestamp to bash script?

Question

I am running a script to check for security vulnerabilities. How do I add a timestamp to the script with results going into a file in /var/log/security-check

#!/bin/sh

# watch accounts - keep an eye on /etc/passwd,
#                  report if accounts change

secretcopy="$HOME/.watchdb"
tempfile="$HOME/.watchdb.new"
passwd="/etc/passwd"
compare=0               # by default, don't compare

trap "/bin/rm -f $tempfile" 0

if [ -s "$secretcopy" ] ; then
  lastrev="$(cat $secretcopy)"
  compare=1
fi

cat $passwd | cut -d: -f1 > $tempfile

current="$(cat $tempfile)"

if [ $compare -eq 1 ] ; then
  if [ "$current" != "$lastrev" ] ; then
    echo "WARNING: password file has changed"
    diff $secretcopy $tempfile | grep '^[<>]' |
        sed 's/</Removed: /;s/>/Added:/'
  fi
else
   mv $tempfile $secretcopy
fi

exit 0

The script should already be timestamped, every file usually is. If you want a log of when the script was run (not sure if that is what you mean), then you can do echo $(date) >> /var/log/security-check. — l'L'l
– l'L'l, Commented Jul 21, 2019 at 19:41
Can you explain a bit more? Every file when modified gets timestamped. You can do a ls -l to check that. Also if you need to timestamp any file, just use touch. touch <script_name> creates if it doesn’t exist. If it exists, timestamp of that script that you passed to it will be updated to latest time. — Mihir Luthra
– Mihir Luthra, Commented Jul 21, 2019 at 19:45
Read mywiki.wooledge.org/Quotes and porkmail.org/era/unix/award.html — Ed Morton
– Ed Morton, Commented Jul 21, 2019 at 22:31
@I'L'I : Why do you want to echo here? data >>/var/log/cecurity-check would do as well. — user1934428
– user1934428, Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 5:57

Mihir Luthra · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-21 19:47:43Z

1

Every file when modified gets timestamped. You can do a ls -l to check that. Also if you need to timestamp any file, just use touch. touch creates if it doesn’t exist. If it exists, timestamp of that script that you passed to it will be updated to latest time.

If you want to add time stamp to a file separately, use:

date +"%T” > "filename"

This post adds some more detail to the answer.

If you want to get a file to be stamped to latest time:

touch filename

answered Jul 21, 2019 at 19:47

Mihir Luthra

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