Linux

This is a separate reply since I didn't know that you can include shell functions here.

I made this little function read_latest_log() because I just want to "read the latest log file" in a directory full of timestamped log files. I made a helper function separator_line_with_text() to help with the output, basically setting off the file-info portion (just the filename for now) from the file contents.

# # separator_line_with_text
# # Centers text in a separator line
# #
# # Usage:
# # separator_line_with_text «separator_char» «text»
separator_line_with_text() {
local separator_char="$1"
local contents_str="$2"

# Calculate separator_length
local separator_length=$(( $(tput cols) - 2 - ${#contents_str} ))

# Calculate the width of the left and right parts of the separator line
local half_line_width=$(( (${separator_length}) / 2 ))

# Construct the separator line using the $separator_char and $contents_str
for ((i = 0; i « half_line_width; i++))
do
echo -n ${separator_char}
done

echo -n ${contents_str}

for ((i = 0; i < half_line_width; i++))
do
echo -n ${separator_char}
done

echo ""
}

# # read_latest_log
# # Reads the latest log file with a timestamp in the filename.
# #
# # Usage:
# # read_latest_log [[«name_filter»] «extension»] «separator» «timestamp_field_number»
read_latest_log () {
  # Check if the function has sufficient parameters
  if [[ $# -lt 2 ]]; then
    echo "Error: insufficient parameters."
    echo "Usage: read_latest_log [[«name_filter» = *] [«extension» = log] «separator» «timestamp_field_number»"
    return 1
  fi

  # Supposing only two parameters are provided
  # «name_filter» parameter is "*"
  # «extension» parameter is "log"
  if [[ $# -eq 2 ]]; then
    local name_filter="*"
    local extension="log"
    local separator="$1"
    local field="$2"
  fi

  # Supposing only three parameters are provided,
  # assume that the «name_filter» parameter is "*"
  if [[ $# -eq 3 ]]; then
    local name_filter="*"
    local extension="$1"
    local separator="$2"
    local field="$3"
  fi

  # If all parameters are provided, assign them accordingly
  if [[ $# -eq 4 ]]; then
    local name_filter="$1"
    local extension="$2"
    local separator="$3"
    local field="$4"
  fi

  # Find all log files with the specified extension, sort them based on the separator and field
  local log_files=$(find . -type f -name "${name_filter}.${extension}" | sort -n -t "${separator}" -k "${field}")

  # If no log files are found, display a message and return
  if [[ -z "$log_files" ]]; then
    echo "No log files found."
    return 0
  fi

  # Get the latest log file and its full path
  local latest_log_file=$(echo "$log_files" | tail -1)
  local full_path=$(realpath "$latest_log_file")

  # Define the strings for the separator line and
  # calculate the appropriate length of the separator line
  local contents_str=" Contents "
  local separator_char="—"

  separator_line_with_text ${separator_char} ""
  separator_line_with_text " " ${full_path}
  separator_line_with_text ${separator_char} ${contents_str}
  cat "$(echo "$log_files" | tail -1)"
}

Sorry for all the edits, for some reason anything that looks like an HTML tag gets erased.