great, assuming I know that the files are all sport.xxxx where .xxxx is the current date e.g. 0420 for April 20, and also assuming we know the directory, I could write the code as: find \usr3\export\sport.* -type f -mtime +7 -exec rm -f; does this code will find files that are older than 7 days with the name bag.*** and delete them? thanks for the help