Perl script for cleaning dir

[svilen888]

Hi!
Please help me with perl-scripting.
So I need to write a script, which:

1. Sort all files in given directory by date.
2. Clean all old files except the 200 newest.

But this script must be in good performance, I mean not to use system("rm ...") to invoke shell every time to remove every file.
Good solutions will be pointed good :))
Regards...

[Victor Fridyev]

I'm not sure, you need perl in order to obtain good performance. If you don't have subdirectories, the solution can be like this:
ls -1tr | awk 'NR>200 {print}' |xargs rm

HTH

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

# perl -e'@f=sort{-M$a<=>-M$b}<*>;@f<=200&&exit;splice@f,0,200;unlink@f'

Cannot beat that in speed and simplicity I guess :)

Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn

[Tim Howell]

Victor,

I like your script, but I think he would need to leave out the "r" arg in the ls command to keep the 200 newest. (The "t" arg already sorts by latest first...)

[harry d brown jr]

You need to determine what you mean by old. You have access time, create time and modified time:

this is an example of "ls -lt", "ls -lct" and "ls -lut":

# ls -lt|more
total 31722
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7 May 14 11:11 wtmp.stat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 53 May 14 11:11 wtmp.out
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 10675 May 14 09:00 vpart6_pm.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 10336 May 14 09:00 vpart5_pm.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 11776 May 14 09:00 vpart3_pm.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 37817 May 14 08:58 vpart1_pm.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 99 May 14 08:57 sys.tst_systest
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 96 May 14 08:52 .A
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 14 08:52 llbdbase.dat
drwx------ 2 root root 96 May 14 08:52 .AgentSockets
-rw------- 1 root root 464 May 14 08:45 portmap.file
-rw------- 1 root root 2004 May 14 08:45 rpcbind.file
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4 May 14 08:11 btmp.stat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39 May 14 08:11 btmp.out
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root sys 1456 May 10 10:31 dah
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 665 May 10 09:42 PATH_b4switch
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 1667 Apr 27 08:25 machineinfo.dbs
-rw------- 1 root sys 0 Apr 27 08:25 shcmachineerr.log
-rw------- 1 root sys 0 Apr 27 08:25 shcmachineuser.log
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 199907 Apr 26 14:48 sysinfo.sh
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 250 Apr 26 10:49 SED1
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 138 Apr 26 10:49 FILE.bck

# ls -lut|more
total 31722
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root sys 7 May 17 09:20 hdhdhd -> opc_tmp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root sys 3 May 17 09:20 hjk -> fgh
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 53 May 14 11:11 wtmp.out
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7 May 14 11:11 wtmp.stat
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 19063 May 14 11:10 ioscan_full_system.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 10675 May 14 09:01 vpart6_pm.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 10336 May 14 09:01 vpart5_pm.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 11776 May 14 09:01 vpart3_pm.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 37817 May 14 09:01 vpart1_pm.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 99 May 14 08:57 sys.tst_systest
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 14 08:52 llbdbase.dat
-r--r--r-- 1 root sys 1019 May 14 08:51 install.vars
-rw------- 1 root root 2004 May 14 08:45 rpcbind.file
-rw------- 1 root root 464 May 14 08:45 portmap.file
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39 May 14 08:11 btmp.out
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4 May 14 08:11 btmp.stat
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root sys 1456 May 10 10:32 dah
drwxr-xr-x 3 root bin 96 May 10 09:45 pam_krb5
drwxrwxrwx 2 oracle dba 96 May 10 09:45 .oracle
drwxrwxrwx 3 root sys 1024 May 10 09:45 dsinstall
drwxrwxrwx 2 root fsr 1024 May 10 09:45 rnd
drwxrwxrwx 2 root sys 1024 May 10 09:45 pr015


# ls -lct|more
total 31722
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 53 May 14 11:11 wtmp.out
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7 May 14 11:11 wtmp.stat
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 10675 May 14 09:00 vpart6_pm.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 10336 May 14 09:00 vpart5_pm.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 11776 May 14 09:00 vpart3_pm.txt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 37817 May 14 08:58 vpart1_pm.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 99 May 14 08:57 sys.tst_systest
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 96 May 14 08:52 .A
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 14 08:52 llbdbase.dat
drwx------ 2 root root 96 May 14 08:52 .AgentSockets
-rw------- 1 root root 2004 May 14 08:45 rpcbind.file
-rw------- 1 root root 464 May 14 08:45 portmap.file
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4 May 14 08:11 btmp.stat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39 May 14 08:11 btmp.out
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root sys 1456 May 10 10:31 dah
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 665 May 10 09:42 PATH_b4switch
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 1667 Apr 27 08:25 machineinfo.dbs
-rw------- 1 root sys 0 Apr 27 08:25 shcmachineuser.log
-rw------- 1 root sys 0 Apr 27 08:25 shcmachineerr.log
-rwxr-x--x 1 root sys 20051 Apr 26 14:49 instSysInfo
-rwxr-x--x 1 root sys 11118 Apr 26 14:49 unSysInfo
-r--r--r-- 1 root sys 6087 Apr 26 14:49 sched.models

note the differences.

live free or die
harry

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

# perldoc -f -M

M Script start time minus file modification time, in days.
A Same for access time.
C Same for inode change time (Unix, may differ for other platforms)

So use -M as in my snippet for modification time, and change to -C for change time, and -A for access time

# perl -e'@f=sort{-M$a<=>-M$b}<*>;@f<=200&&exit;splice@f,0,200;unlink@f'
# perl -e'@f=sort{-C$a<=>-C$b}<*>;@f<=200&&exit;splice@f,0,200;unlink@f'
# perl -e'@f=sort{-A$a<=>-A$b}<*>;@f<=200&&exit;splice@f,0,200;unlink@f'

Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn