latest: track the actual python file, not the symlink

latest

@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+import argparse, os, glob, sys, operator, fnmatch
+
+def pathwalk(path, filter, order, recurse=False):
+    """walk along a path and stat the matching files"""
+    entries = dict()
+
+    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):
+        for f in files:
+            if filter and not fnmatch.fnmatch(f, filter):
+                continue
+
+            fullpath = os.path.join(root, f)
+            entries[fullpath] = os.lstat(fullpath).st_mtime
+
+        if not recurse: break
+
+    return sorted(entries.items(), key=operator.itemgetter(1), reverse=order)
+
+def print_each(*args):
+    """print a filename plus the delimiter"""
+    sys.stdout.write("%s%c" % args)
+    return 0
+
+def unlink_each(*args):
+    """attempt to unlink a file"""
+    try:
+        os.unlink(args[0])
+        return 0
+    except OSError(errno, strerror):
+        sys.stderr.write("%s: cannot unlink `%s': %s\n" % (sys.argv[0], args[0], strerror))
+        return 1
+
+def main():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='find the latest files in a directory',
+            epilog='path defaults to the current directory if unspecified')
+
+    parser.add_argument('-0', '--null', action='store_const', dest='delim', default='\n',
+            const='\0', help='null delimit output')
+
+    parser.add_argument('-r', '--recurse', action='store_true', dest='recurse', default=False,
+            help='recurse into directories')
+
+    parser.add_argument('-i', '--inverse', action='store_true', dest='inverse', default=False,
+            help='invert selection (all except latest count)')
+
+    parser.add_argument('-d', '--delete', action='store_const', dest='action', default=print_each,
+            const=unlink_each, help='delete each candidate instead')
+
+    parser.add_argument('-n', '--count', action='store', dest='count', default=1, type=int,
+            metavar='N', help='number of files to select')
+
+    parser.add_argument('-o', '--oldest', action='store_true', dest='reverse', default=False,
+            help='examine oldest files')
+
+    parser.add_argument('-f', '--filter', action='store', dest='filter', default=None,
+            metavar='PAT', help='filter files on glob pattern')
+
+    parser.add_argument('path', default='.', nargs='?', help='path to search')
+
+    opts = parser.parse_args()
+
+    if not os.path.exists(opts.path):
+        sys.stderr.write("error: path not found: %s\n" % opts.path)
+        sys.exit(os.EX_OSFILE)
+
+    files = pathwalk(opts.path, opts.filter, opts.reverse, opts.recurse)
+    if not files:
+        sys.exit(os.EX_DATAERR)
+
+    if opts.inverse:
+        candidates = files[0:len(files) - opts.count]
+    else:
+        candidates = files[-(opts.count):]
+
+    error = 0
+    for cand in candidates:
+        error += opts.action(cand[0], opts.delim)
+
+    sys.exit(bool(error))
+
+main()