Sponsored Content
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Deleting the oldest file in a directory Post 302380019 by Immolation on Monday 14th of December 2009 03:14:42 AM
Old 12-14-2009
Deleting the oldest file in a directory

Hey! I have found similar posts both here and on other sites regarding this, but I cannot seem to get my script to work. I want to delete the oldest file in a test directory if there are more than two files. My script is currently:

Code:
#!/bin/bash

MEPATH=/usr/local/bin/test

FILECOUNT=`ls $MEPATH | wc -l`;
if [ $FILECOUNT > 2 ]
then
        cd "$MEPATH" && ls -tr | head -n 1 | xargs rm -f;
        echo "Removed oldest file...";
else
        echo "There were not more than two files, nothing to remove";
fi

When I run the script, it removes the oldest file regardless of whether or not there are more than two files, and places an empty file called "2" in the directory. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks.
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Oldest File In A Directory

I'm writing a script to find the oldest file in a directory. I know this can be done by using ls -rt | tail -1 but these are rather large directories and that can be somewhat slow since the script will be running constantly. Are there any other ways to do this that would be faster? I looked to... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: bergerj3
2 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

Removing the oldest file in a directory

Hi all, I need your assistance in removing the oldest file in a directory. I posted the same thread 3 days back and I got the following answer ls -1 -t | tail -1 | xargs rm which is not covering the case when there are directories older than the oldest file. So, could you please... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: pavan_movva
2 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

how to grep the oldest file in a directory

Hi, Please help me out I want to grep the oldest file in a directory, could I use "ls" command? and how? thanx in advance (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: ericaworld
1 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Setting Variable to oldest file in a directory

I am using a bash script to perform some automated maintenance on files in a directory. When I run the script using $sh -x script.sh <directory> the script works fine. It sets the variable to the oldest file, and continues on. However when I run the script like this $./script.sh <directory>, it... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: spaceherpe61
5 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

Deleting the file only to all the directory and sub directory

I need the unix command or shell script to delete all the file in current directory and sub directory. (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: kingganesh04
7 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

Find Oldest file in a directory tree

This might just be one command. Any1 having the solution? Thanks, Rahul. (25 Replies)
Discussion started by: rahulrathod
25 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Finding the oldest file in a particular directory

Hi all, I am a newbie to scripting and I need your help regarding finding the oldest file in a particular directory. My intention is to remove that oldest file. Are there any options available with the "find" command to do this.. Thanks in advance for your help Pavan (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: pavan_movva
4 Replies

8. UNIX and Linux Applications

Finding the oldest file in a directory without ls

I am trying to determine the oldest and most recent files in a huge directory. I am using an ls -tr statement outside my find statement. The directory is too big and I am getting an "arg list too long" error. Is there something I can put in my find statement that doesn't create a list to... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: hiyofjord
2 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

Bash to select oldest folder in directory automatically and log process

The `bash` below uses the oldest folder in the specified directory and logs it. The goes though an analysis process and creates a log. My problem is that if there are 3 folders in the directory folder1,folder2,folder3, the bash is using folder2 for the analysis eventhough folder1 is the oldest... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: cmccabe
0 Replies

10. Shell Programming and Scripting

Bash to select oldest folder in directory and write to log

In the bash below the oldest folder in a directory is selected. If there are 3folders in the directory /home/cmccabe/Desktop/NGS/test and nothing is done to them (ie. no files deleted, renamed) then the bash correctly identifies f1 as the oldest. However, if something is done to the folder then... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: cmccabe
4 Replies
AUTOTRASH(1)						      General Commands Manual						      AUTOTRASH(1)

NAME
autotrash -- program to automatically purge old files from the FreeDesktop.org trash SYNOPSIS
autotrash [-d purge_n_days_old] autotrash [--delete number_of_megabytes_to_purge] autotrash [--keep-free number_of_megabytes_to_free] DESCRIPTION
autotrash is a program that looks in a FreeDesktop.org Trash folder for information on it's contents and then purges a part of the trash depending on the options. The most common option is -d, which will purge files that have been in the trash for more then a given number of days. The option --delete will remove at least the given number of megabytes from the trash, removing the oldest trash first. Using --keep-free will make sure at least the given number of megabytes of free space is available, by automatically setting --delete to the right value. For example, to keep at least a 1GB of free space, removing files from the trash if needed, use autotrash --keep-free 1024 . OPTIONS
This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-'). -h --help Show a summary of options. -d DAYS --days DAYS Purge files older than DAYS number of days. -T PATH --trash-path PATH Use the given path as the location of the Trash directory, instead of the default: ~/.local/share/Trash . --max-free M Only purge files if there is less than M megabytes of free space left at the trash location. As an example, if you set this to 1024, then autotrash will only start to work if there is less than 1GB of free space in the trash. Till that time, autotrash will just exit normally without scanning the Trash directory. If unsure, try running autotrash with --dry-run and --verbose to see the effect. --delete M Purge at least M megabytes, deleting oldest trash addition first. It uses trash entries, NOT individual files. This means that if your oldest trashed item is a 1GB directory, and you request at least 10MB to be removed (M=10), autotrash will remove 1GB. If unsure, try running autotrash with both --dry-run and --stat to see the effect. --min-free M --keep-free M Make sure there is a minimum of M megabytes of free space. If there is less free space, set --delete to the difference between M and the amount of free space. If unsure, try running autotrash with --dry-run and --verbose to see the effect. -D REGEX --delete-first REGEX Purge any file which matches REGEX first, regardless of it's time-stamp. REGEX must be a valid regular expression. If this option is used multiple times, the files matching the first regular expression are deleted first, then the second etc. Example, delete any *.avi files first, then by age: --delete-first '.*.avi' -v --verbose Output information on what is happening and why. -q --quiet Only output warnings. --check Report .trashinfo files that point to a non-existing file. This will only happen with a broken Trashcan. It is left up to the user to actually do something with this information. These files will be removed as soon as the mentioned file would be removed by autotrash. --dry-run Only list what would be done, but actually do nothing. --stat Show the number, and total size of files involved. -V --version Show the version of program. EXAMPLES
Examples of program use. autotrash -d 30 Purge any file that has been in the trash for more then 30 days. autotrash --max-free 1024 -d 30 Only purge files from the trash if there is less than 1GB of space left on the trash filesystem. If so, only trash files that are older than 30 days. autotrash --min-free 2048 Purge files from trash, oldest first, till there is at least 2GB of space on the trash filesystem. There is no restriction on how old trashed files are. autotrash --min-free 2048 -D '.*.bak' -D '.*.avi' Purge files from trash till there is at least 2GB of space on the trash filesystem. If we need to remove files, make sure we remove *.bak files first, then all *.avi files and after that the oldest to the newest. There is no restriction on how old trashed files can get. Please note that '.*.bak' and '.*.avi' are regular expressions and not glob patterns. Given that they are regular expressions, using -D '.*.(png|gif|jpg|jpeg)' will match images with any of the given extensions. autotrash --max-free 4000 --min-free 2048 -d 30 Start reading the trash if there is less than 4000MB of free space, then start keeping an eye on. At that point, remove files older than 30 days and if there is less than 2GB of free space after that remove even newer files. @hourly /usr/bin/autotrash --max-free 4000 --min-free 2048 -d 30 Experienced users should consider adding autotrash as a crontab entry, using crontab -e and adding the line above. AUTHOR
This manual page was written by A. Bram Neijt bram@neijt.nl for the Debian system (and may be used by others). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL. AUTOTRASH(1)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:53 AM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy