The “ls -lt” command can be used to get the list of files sorted by their modification date.

[neo@techpulp ~]# ls -lt
total 60
-rw-rw-r-- 1 neo neo   122 2008-12-06 01:39 monitor.sh
-rw-rw-r-- 1 neo neo    44 2008-12-06 01:33 1.sh
-rw-rw-r-- 1 neo neo 10381 2008-12-06 00:53 ifconfig.pdf
drwxrwxr-x 3 neo neo  4096 2008-12-05 20:06 workspace
drwxr-xr-x 3 neo neo  4096 2008-12-05 02:35 Desktop
drwxrwxr-x 3 neo neo  4096 2008-12-05 01:46 Examples
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-05 00:59 Download
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Videos
[neo@techpulp ~]#

You can add “-r” option to the previous command to reverse the order i.e. to get oldest file first.

[neo@techpulp ~]# ls -lrt
total 60
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Videos
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-04 22:11 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 neo neo  4096 2008-12-05 00:59 Download
drwxrwxr-x 3 neo neo  4096 2008-12-05 01:46 Examples
drwxr-xr-x 3 neo neo  4096 2008-12-05 02:35 Desktop
drwxrwxr-x 3 neo neo  4096 2008-12-05 20:06 workspace
-rw-rw-r-- 1 neo neo 10381 2008-12-06 00:53 ifconfig.pdf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 neo neo    44 2008-12-06 01:33 1.sh
-rw-rw-r-- 1 neo neo   122 2008-12-06 01:39 monitor.sh
[neo@techpulp ~]#

If you want to get plain list of file names, just avoid “-l” option in the above command. You can use output of this command to populate a shell variable in a script or variable in GNU Makefile.

[neo@techpulp ~]# ls -t
monitor.sh  1.sh  ifconfig.pdf  workspace  Desktop  Examples  Download  Documents  Music  Pictures  Public  Templates  Videos
[neo@techpulp ~]# ls -rt
Videos  Templates  Public  Pictures  Music  Documents  Download  Examples  Desktop  workspace  ifconfig.pdf  1.sh  monitor.sh
[neo@techpulp ~]#