Iterate through list of filenames in order they were created in bash

Question

Parsing output of ls to iterate through list of files is bad. So how should I go about iterating through list of files in order by which they were first created

Answer 1

sorthelper=();
for file in *; do
    # We need something that can easily be sorted.
    # Here, we use "".
    # Note that this works with any special characters in filenames

    sorthelper+=("$(stat -n -f "%Sm%N" -t "%Y%m%d%H%M%S" -- "$file")"); # Mac OS X only
    # or
    sorthelper+=("$(stat --printf "%Y    %n" -- "$file")"); # Linux only
done;

sorted=();
while read -d $'\0' elem; do
    # this strips away the first 14 characters () 
    sorted+=("${elem:14}");
done < <(printf '%s\0' "${sorthelper[@]}" | sort -z)

for file in "${sorted[@]}"; do
    # do your stuff...
    echo "$file";
done;

Other than sort and stat, all commands are actual native Bash commands (builtins)*. If you really want, you can implement your own sort using Bash builtins only, but I see no way of getting rid of stat.

The important parts are read -d $'\0', printf '%s\0' and sort -z. All these commands are used with their null-delimiter options, which means that any filename can be procesed safely. Also, the use of double-quotes in "$file" and "${anarray[*]}" is essential.

*_{Many people feel that the GNU tools are somehow part of Bash, but technically they're not. So, stat and sort are just as non-native as perl.}