find files based on their Windows "birthtime"

birthed.py

#!/usr/bin/python

# Recursively print files created before/at/after (-//+) some number of days
# ago. This only works on Windows, which stores file "birthtime" in the
# filesystem

import sys
import os
from datetime import date, timedelta

def main(args):
    if args.days_ago.startswith('-'):
        sign = -1
    elif args.days_ago.startswith('+'):
        sign = +1
    else:
        sign = 0
    pivot = date.today() - timedelta(abs(int(args.days_ago)))
    sep = "\n"
    if args.null_delimit:
        sep = chr(0)


    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(args.dir):
        for f in files:
            path = os.path.join(root, f)
            birthed = date.fromtimestamp(os.stat(path).st_birthtime)
            if cmp(pivot, birthed) == sign:
                sys.stdout.write(path)
                sys.stdout.write(sep)



if __name__ == '__main__':
    import argparse

    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument('-0', dest='null_delimit',
        action='store_true', help='delimit filepaths by nulls')
    parser.add_argument('days_ago', type=str,
        help="""\
Only print files created this many days ago. If preprended by +/-, only files
created after/before the number of days are printed. When using a minus sign
precede the arguments by -- so the argument parser doesn't treat it like an
option."""
    )
    parser.add_argument('dir', type=str, help='dir to start in')
    args = parser.parse_args()
    main(args)