Deleting spool files by creation date

[Helga Skelly]

Our software runs batch jobs that produce "tail sheets". These tail sheets list warnings and errors. We are deferring the tail sheets in order to avoid paper waste. This presents another problem in that they need to be managed properly on the system. Periodically, we woudl like to remove tail sheets more than 90 days old. Is it possible to accomplish this in a script? Is anyone doing this and would you be willing to share your script file?

[RAC_1 · Accepted solution]

I do not have the script ready, but find can be used easily in your case. You can set it through cron ti run at certain time and move files to other location/delete/what eer you want.

The command would be as follows.

find /path -type -mtime +90 -exec mv {} /dest \;

This would move files more than 90 days old to /dest dir.

Anil

[Pete Randall]

Helga,

It's rather simple with the find command:

find /dirname -type f -name file_name* -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

or

find /dirname -type f -name file_name* -mtime +30 | xargs rm


Pete

[Helga Skelly]

Hi, Pete

I've been trying your first method. I am logged in as root:

find /ifas/xport/.spool -type f -name O*.data -mtime +90 -exec rm {}\;

I keep getting an error:
find: -exec not terminated with ';'
I do have the ';' at the end of the command line.

When I tried your second method, I got the error:
Usage: rm [-Rfir] file ...

What am I doing wrong?

[RAC_1]

You need a space between {} and \;

Anil

[Pete Randall]

Helga,

Anil is exactly right for the first method and I left something out of the second method. I think the second should be
find /ifas/xport/.spool -type f -name O*.data -mtime +90 | xargs rm {}


Pete

[Helga Skelly]

Pete,

Thank you for your solutions. I got the first method to work. However, for the second method even with the changes, I am still getting an error:

# find /ifas/xport/.spool -type f -name O*.data -mtime +1 | xargs rm{}
xargs: rm{} not found

I've tried it with a space betwwen rm and the {} and without...

[Geoff Wild]

This is what I fo from cron:

0 5 * * 1 [ -d /var/adm/lp/XEBEC ] && /usr/local/bin/print.clean.receive >/dev/null 2>&1

The -d just makes sure the directory exists (cause I use MC/SG).

# cat /usr/local/bin/print.clean.receive
#!/bin/sh
# Script to remove old print jobs
# Geoff Wild
# April 4 2002
#
find /var/spool/lp/receive -name '*PRD' -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \; >/tmp/lp.receive.log
find /var/spool/lp/receive -name '*QA' -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \; >>/tmp/lp.receive.log
find /var/spool/lp/receive -name '*DEV' -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \; >>/tmp/lp.receive.log
find /var/spool/lp/receive -name '*VPR' -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \; >>/tmp/lp.receive.log
find /var/adm/lp/XEBEC -name '*ftplog' -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \; >>/tmp/lp.receive.log

Rgds...Geoff

[Helga Skelly]

Thank you all for your assistance. I am still having problems using the command successfully. I'm no longer getting errors, but the files are not deleting. I am logged in as root, trying to delete spoolfiles in the /ifas/xport/.spool directory. Here is what I tried (not using dates, but the same idea using the find command in conjuction with a rm command):

# pwd
/
# find /ifas/xport/.spool -type f -name O*.data -exec rm{} \;
# ll /ifas/xport/.spool
total 54
-rw-rw---- 1 bsi bsi 0 Oct 13 14:05 -t
-rw-rw---- 1 bsi bsi 9272 Oct 13 14:57 O3027.data
-rw-rw---- 1 bsi bsi 5271 Oct 13 16:44 O3058.data
-rw-rw---- 1 bsi bsi 9797 Oct 13 16:50 O3065.data
drwxrwxrwx 2 bsi bsi 96 Jun 12 1999 tailsheets
-rw-rw---- 1 bsi bsi 14 Oct 15 2000 testfile
#

Could someone please take a look at this?

[Geoff Wild]

Put the O*.data in quotes:

"O*.data"

Rgds...Geoff

[Helga Skelly]

I tried the quotes, but the files still did not delete...

# pwd
/
# whoami
root
# find /ifas/xport/.spool -type f -name "O*.data" -exec rm{} \;
# ll /ifas/xport/.spool
total 54
-rw-rw---- 1 bsi bsi 0 Oct 13 14:05 -t
-rw-rw---- 1 bsi bsi 9272 Oct 13 14:57 O3027.data
-rw-rw---- 1 bsi bsi 5271 Oct 13 16:44 O3058.data
-rw-rw---- 1 bsi bsi 9797 Oct 13 16:50 O3065.data
drwxrwxrwx 2 bsi bsi 96 Jun 12 1999 tailsheets
-rw-rw---- 1 bsi bsi 14 Oct 15 2000 testfile
#
Do you have any other suggestions I could try?

[Geoff Wild]

Yes - you need a space after the rm

before the {}

find /ifas/xport/.spool -type f -name "O*.data" -exec rm {} \;


Rgds...geoff

[Helga Skelly]

Yes! It worked! Thank you so much, Geoff.