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-atime not working as expected

 
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# 1  
Old 09-28-2011
-atime not working as expected
I need to sort through a volume that contains video files by access time and delete files that have not been accessed over x days. I have to use the access time as video files are originals that do not get modified, just read

Testing commands on a local test folder...
Code:
$ date
Wed Sep 28 12:46:05 MDT 2011
$ cd ~/Desktop/unixtests01/
$ ls -l
total 32
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei  1788 Aug 31 09:46 newlist.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei     6 Aug 31 09:31 simpletext.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei    11 Aug 31 09:32 simpletext2.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 shoei  shoei  24 Sep 13 16:43 /Users/shoei/Desktop/unixtests01//simpletext3.txt
$ find . -type f -atime -20 -exec ls -ltr {} \;
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei  1788 Aug 31 09:46 /Users/shoei/Desktop/unixtests01//newlist.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei  6 Aug 31 09:31 /Users/shoei/Desktop/unixtests01//simpletext.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei  11 Aug 31 09:32 /Users/shoei/Desktop/unixtests01//simpletext2.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 shoei  shoei  24 Sep 13 16:43 /Users/shoei/Desktop/unixtests01//simpletext3.txt
$ find . -type f -atime +20 -exec ls -ltr {} \;
$

it would seem that simpletext3 would be in the -20 category, while the others would be in the +20. ???

Running in bash on OS X 10.6.8
Smilie

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Last edited by radoulov; 09-28-2011 at 06:14 PM..
# 2  
Old 09-28-2011
First question would be, does your system even keep atimes at all? Many systems these days don't bother.
# 3  
Old 09-28-2011
How would I find out? I do know that
Code:
$ find . -atime +90 -exec ls -ltr {} \;

does work on my OS X Server ...
Last edited by radoulov; 09-28-2011 at 06:15 PM.. Reason: Code tags!
# 4  
Old 09-28-2011
OSX does seem to keep atimes, but spotlight mungs them for everything it trawls. You'll have to tell spotlight not to index your videos.

-atime 2 would mean the file was accessed at least two days ago, meaning, it'd give you the files you want to exclude... '!' -atime 2 would give you the opposite.

I don't think negative values would be meaningful.
# 5  
Old 09-28-2011
On Linux and freeBSD: ls -lu shows access times
# 6  
Old 09-28-2011
None of these were accessed (unless getting info in Finder counts) but I get this:

Code:
$ find . -type f -atime -20 -exec ls -lu {} \;
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei  1788 Sep 28 12:42 ./newlist.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei  6 Sep 28 12:42 ./simpletext.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei  11 Sep 28 12:42 ./simpletext2.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 shoei  shoei  24 Sep 28 12:43 ./simpletext3.txt

$ find . -type f -atime -20 -exec ls -ltr {} \;
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei  1788 Aug 31 09:46 ./newlist.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei  6 Aug 31 09:31 ./simpletext.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 shoei  shoei  11 Aug 31 09:32 ./simpletext2.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 shoei  shoei  24 Sep 13 16:43 ./simpletext3.txt

Last edited by radoulov; 09-28-2011 at 06:15 PM.. Reason: Code tags!
# 7  
Old 09-28-2011
getting info in finder definitely counts. finder is known to trash the atimes of everything except things you tell it not to scan.

I don't think negative times, which imply modification in the future, are meaningful. Try giving it a positive value.

Also try seeing what the atimes actually are with ls -lu.

---------- Post updated at 04:30 PM ---------- Previous update was at 03:45 PM ----------

On second look I see you have ls -lu in there, in a roundabout way.

Those files were all accessed very, very recently.
 
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