It’s awful to log into a server, run ls, and get back dates out of order:
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tomcat staff 194230 Sep 27 15:06 localhost_access_log.09-27-2010.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tomcat staff 79065 Sep 27 15:56 localhost_access_log.09-27-2011.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tomcat staff 18234 Sep 29 12:37 localhost_access_log.09-29-2010.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tomcat staff 293834 Sep 29 16:37 localhost_access_log.09-29-2011.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tomcat staff 79360 Oct 3 15:00 localhost_access_log.10-03-2010.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tomcat staff 19460 Oct 3 15:23 localhost_access_log.10-03-2011.txt
If you were going to organize these log files in folders, would your directory structure look like this?
Logs
|---09
|---27
|---localhost_access_log.09-27-2010.txt
|---localhost_access_log.09-27-2011.txt
|---29
|---localhost_access_log.09-29-2010.txt
|---localhost_access_log.09-29-2011.txt
Unlikely, so why do that with dates? Hierarchical information is best grouped starting with the broadest category and narrowing down. A better way to structure your dates would be:
Year - Month - Day - Hour - Minute - Second
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tomcat staff 79065 Sep 27 15:56 localhost_access_log.2011-09-27.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tomcat staff 293834 Sep 29 16:37 localhost_access_log.2011-09-29.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tomcat staff 19460 Oct 3 15:23 localhost_access_log.2011-10-03.txt
Now that’s much better!
PS: Hours should be in military style - it’s the same idea!