topic Re: delete files by date range in Operating System - HP-UX

delete files by date range

ng_7 — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:26:03 GMT

hi, does anyone knows how to delete files by specifying the modify date range ? eg to delete file with modify date from 01/01/07 to 28/02/07 .

thanks

Re: delete files by date range

Steven Schweda — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:48:13 GMT

Yes, someone does.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1107387

Re: delete files by date range

Yogeeraj_1 — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:55:28 GMT

hi,

try this solution:
touch -t 0701010000 /tmp/start
touch -t 0702282359 /tmp/finish
find . -xdev -type f -newer /tmp/start -a ! -newer /tmp/finish | xargs rm

(this is based on one solution that JRF provided once)

hope this helps!
kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: delete files by date range

ng_7 — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:11:27 GMT

thanks , these are the command i wanted. it works fine. and how about moving to another directory instead of removing it .

thanks

Re: delete files by date range

Pete Randall — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:17:32 GMT

find . -xdev -type f -newer /tmp/start -a ! -newer /tmp/finish -exec mv {} /newdir \;

Pete

Re: delete files by date range

Dennis Handly — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:19:44 GMT

>how about moving to another directory instead of removing it.

You may have to execute a script so you can change the path:
find . -xdev -type f -newer /tmp/start -a ! -newer /tmp/finish \
-exec move_them_script {} +

And the contents of move_them_script:

#!/usr/bin/ksh
for file in "$@"; do
echo mv $file new_path/
done

Make sure it does what you want then you can remove "echo".

If find returns a "small" amount of files you can do:
$ mv $(find . -xdev -type f -newer /tmp/start -a ! -newer /tmp/finish) new_path

Re: delete files by date range

Peter Nikitka — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:39:47 GMT

Hi,

note, that Pete's and Dennis' wont preserve the directory structure the file was found but move it plain into the new directory.
So it may be, that filenames in different directories overwrite eachother.

If this is a problem, you'll have to modify Dennis' script like this:
#!/usr/bin/ksh
for file; do
np=new_path/${file%/*}
[ -d $np ] || mkdir -p $np
echo mv $file $np
done

mfG Peter

Re: delete files by date range

ng_7 — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:17:09 GMT

hi, thanks, sorry, one more question :

to move a specific file with a specific range of modified date to other directory.
eg : to move *.t with the modified date range from 01/01/07 to 28/02/07 to /newdir

thank you very much

Re: delete files by date range

A. Clay Stephenson — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:33:00 GMT

simply add one more condition to your find:
-name '*.t'

Re: delete files by date range

ng_7 — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:51:30 GMT

if i am using the below command :

find . -xdev -type f -newer /tmp/start -a ! -newer /tmp/finish -exec mv {} /newdir \;

then i add -name *.t here on the find command (without moving)

find . -name *.t -xdev -type f -newer /tmp/start -a ! -newer /tmp/finish \;
result : find: missing conjunction

then i try this
find . $ -name *.t $ -xdev -type f -newer /tmp/start -a ! -newer /tmp/finish \;

result :
find: bad option OFAAAa00102.t

please help. thanks

Re: delete files by date range

A. Clay Stephenson — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:55:48 GMT

I did not say -name *.t; I said -name '*.t' -- that makes all the difference. You want find rather than the shell to act upon the '*' metacharacter and the quotes protect it from the shell. Punctuations count in UNIX.

Re: delete files by date range

ng_7 — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:15:07 GMT

sorry, it is my mistake. and it works fine.

thank you very much.

Re: delete files by date range

ng_7 — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:23:09 GMT

thanks to all of you.