find command returns error if it cant find file

[Ratzie]

I have a cron that does some cleanup:
00 5 * * * find /dir/*dump/*.trc -mtime +14 -exec rm {} \;

Which is fine, but find complains if the directory is not there. Which in some cases it wont be.

produced the following output:

find: stat() error/dir/*dump/*.trc: No such file or directory

How do I run this find command in my cron, and not produce an error if it /dir/*dump/ does not exist?

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi:

# 00 5 * * * find /dir/*dump/*.trc -mtime +14 -exec rm {} \; 2> /dev/null

...will suppress the STDERR output you are seeing.

TO make your removal faster. The '-exec' terminated with a semicolon will spawn a process for every file found. Using the '+' terminator causes the bundling of many arguments (here, file names) together and then creating one or just a few processes to remove them.

# 00 5 * * * find /dir/*dump/*.trc -mtime +14 -exec rm {} + 2> /dev/null

Regards!

...JRF...

[Steven Schweda]

> How do I run this find command [...]

You don't. You run something better. (Write
a script which does what you want?)

You could test for the directory/ies before
running the "find" command.

If a "/dir/*dump" was always there, but the
"*.trc" part was uncertain, then you might
do something like:

find /dir/*dump -name '*.trc'

Using a file-spec wildcard in a "find"
command is often a sign of a poor design.

[Dennis Handly]

>find /dir/*dump/*.trc -mtime +14 -exec rm {} + 2> /dev/null

You may also want to improve it by finding only files "-type f" and/or adding "-f" or "-rf" to your rm:
find /dir/*dump/*.trc -mtime +14 -exec rm -rf {} + 2> /dev/null

[Ratzie]

worked like a charm! Thanks!