topic Re: Linux script for purging old files in Operating System - Linux

Linux script for purging old files

Jorge Cocomess — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:55:43 GMT

Greetings,

I am looking for help on writing a script to purge files that are older than 14 days. I am currently running RHAS 4.0

Please help.

Thanks,
Jorge

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Dennis Handly — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:55:59 GMT

You can use find:
find some-path... -mtime +14 -exec rm -rf \;

Make sure you test it first by inserting the echo command before "rm".

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Jorge Cocomess — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:01:07 GMT

How would I or how I should retain a list of purged files?

Thanks!

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Ivan Ferreira — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:21:04 GMT

Use rm -fvr, adding the "-v" will display the name. Redirect the ouput to a file with "> filename".

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Jorge Cocomess — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:31:25 GMT

Okay...

So, the codes should look like this?

cd /tmp/log_files
find . -type -f -mtime 2 -name "*.log*" -exec rm -fvr > /tmp/purged.log {} \;

Thanks much!!

Jorge

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Jorge Cocomess — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:30:13 GMT

I need help with my script. I am very novice and still learning on how to write Linux scripts at this time. There are two (2) issues with what I am trying to do.

1. The script execute but does nothing. No errors.

2. I have results if I execute the command from the script manually. However, it showed that the log captured the removed files, but leaves the supposely removed files back in the original directory.

Here's the sample of my script.

#! /bin/sh
#
# Delete files that are older than 7 days
cd /tmp/datalog/tdump
find . -type f -mtime 7 -name "*.dlog*" -exec rm -fvr > \tmp\purge.log {} \;

feedback would greatly appreciate it.

Jorge

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Court Campbell — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:46:31 GMT

#! /bin/sh
#
# Delete files that are older than 7 days
cd /tmp/datalog/tdump
find . -type f -mtime 7 -name "*.dlog*" -exec rm -fvr {} \; > \tmp\purge.log

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Jorge Cocomess — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:03:09 GMT

I think I also got the back-slash backward as well.
find . -type f -mtime 7 -name "*.dlog*" -exec rm -fvr > \tmp\purge.log {} \;

It should be
find . -type f -mtime 7 -name "*.dlog*" -exec rm -fvr {} \; > /tmp/purge.log

I will test it out and let you all know.

Thanks!!

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Dennis Handly — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:08:43 GMT

>Delete files that are older than 7 days

Older requires: -mtime +7

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Jorge Cocomess — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:46:46 GMT

"Older requires: -mtime +7" - It doesn't work for me. It will work just fine with -mtime 7. Beats the heck out of me.

Any ideas??

J

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Matti_Kurkela — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:36:04 GMT

The -ctime, -mtime and -atime options of the find command calculate the file's age by 24-hour periods, ignoring any fractional part.

"-mtime 7" finds files which are _exactly_ 7 days old, i.e. files with ages between [exactly 7 days] and [7 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds].

"-mtime +7" finds files which are more than 7 full 24-hour periods old, i.e. 8 days old or older. A file that is 7 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds old is counted as 7 days old, and "more than 7" means 8 days or more.

MK

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Jorge Cocomess — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:13:54 GMT

Much better explainations...Thank you!

Re: Linux script for purging old files

Jorge Cocomess — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:15:44 GMT

Thanks!