I have this script that tails a file and makes db inserts based on the parsing it does on that file. There is one file generated per day, but I would like to Continue this same process, but actually write the raw data to a file that is split up into hourly chunks. What is a good way to tell the system that when the script starts, open a file labeled (currentTime).curr, and then at the end of the hour, rename it to just (previousHour) and open a new file (currentTime).curr, and so on... This is what I am doing so far. db_record handles the inserts, so I figure right before there I should handle the open and close of files as well as the writing. 
if ($connected) {
        
        $timestamp = time;
        if ( $timestamp < $midnight ) {
            log_notice("Client : Restarting $0\n");
            log_error("End Processing $src_cdr_file\n");
            exec '/home/$0'
              || log_warn("Client : Could not exec $0\n");
            exit 6;    # Something is wrong if this exit is taken
        }    # End if $timestamp

        log_notice("Client : Normal Termination\n");
        log_error("End Processing $src_cdr_file\n\n");
        exec '/usr/bin/perl', '/home/$0'
          || log_warn("Client : Could not exec $0\n");
        exit 7;    # Something is wrong if this exit is taken

    }    # End if $connected
};    # End anonymous sub

print $socket "tail\n";    # Rock n Roll
open( STDOUT, "> /dev/null" );

#    Begin processing records
while ( defined( my $line = <$socket> ) ) {
    if ($recover_mode) { $rec_num++; }
    db_record( $sth, $line, $recover_from );
}

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Something I was thinking about though was the fact sometimes it may not hit right on the HH:MM:00 and not cut the files appropriately. Thanks for any suggestions!

In reply to Splitting up a file in hourly increments by hallikpapa

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