How to find all files older than a certain date

[Byron Myers]

I searched the forum for this answer, but got no hits (UNIX). How do I search a directory tree for all files older than a certain date, say 11/15/04 (where a file's date is that which shows up in "ls -ltr")?

[Pete Randall · Accepted solution]

touch a file first:

touch /tmp/reference 20041115

then use find

find /starting_directory ! -newer /tmp/reference


Pete

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Byron,

You just need to calculate the number of days between then & now and construct a find command like the following:

find /top_level_dir \( -type f -a -mtime 54 \)

the -a is a logical and operator & the parens must be commented in the command and must be seperated from the values by a space. Of course you can follow that with whatever else you might need - like an exec to run something - but if there's nothing further it'll just send to std out which of course could be redirected to a file.

HTH,
Jeff

[Byron Myers]

I used Jeff's command - it worked like a charm (this seemed easiest to me)!

[Pete Randall]

It's easier, other than having to do the math!

Glad to help.


Pete