Limit for bash loop

Question

I have problem with mass creation dummy files and directories. I want to create something like this:

dummy_directory_1/dummy_file_1
dummy_directory_2/dummy_file_2
dummy_directory_3/dummy_file_3

using loop:

for(( i=1; $i <=1000; i++ )); do 
   mkdir $(date --date="$i day ago" +%Y%m%d%H%M%S); 
   touch $(date --date="$i day ago" +%Y%m%d%H%M%S)/$(date --date="$i day ago" +%Y%m%d%H%M%S)_file; 
done

Not all file are being created because I get following errors:

touch: cannot touch `20140211230556/20140211230556_file': No such file or directory
touch: cannot touch `20131105230559/20131105230559_file': No such file or directory
touch: cannot touch `20130529000604/20130529000604_file': No such file or directory

Do you know if bash/linux has some limits for file creation? I had similar problem when I made script for searching many files using grep. If i change loop $i<=10 it works. Please help.

Answer 1

Your code only works if the two date calls generating the name of the directory are executed within the same second, if that happens to change inbetween you end up with two different values for the direcory name.

Try to store the value in a variable first:

for(( i=1; i <= 1000; i++ )); do
    name=$(date --date="$i day ago" +%Y%m%d%H%M%S)
    mkdir -p "$name" &&
    touch "$name/${name}_file" ||
    break
done