Ls -l and rm Post: 303038520

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Top Forums UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers Ls -l and rm Post 303038520 by Neo on Thursday 5th of September 2019 05:58:22 AM

09-05-2019

Administrator

You can use find with the -exec flag for this.

For example in Linux:

Code:

find /path/to/files* -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

Note that there must be spaces between rm, {} and \;

More Explanation:

The first argument is the path to the files you want to delete. This can be a path, a directory, or a wildcard as in the example above. I would recommend using the full path, and make sure that you run the command without the exec rm to make sure you are getting the right results.

The second argument, -mtime, and this switch is used to specify the number of days old that the file is. If you enter +30, it will find files older than 30 days.

The third argument, -exec, allows you to pass in a command such as rm. The {} \; at the end is required at the end the of the command.

NOTE:

Do not run this without testing it first... for example. always run first and look at the output, for example:

Code:

find /path/to/files* -mtime +30  > /tmp/testing_123.txt

After you are happy it is working as you wish, then you can run it.. but honestly, here is what I do:

Code:

mkdir /tmp/files_to_delete
find /path/to/files* -mtime +30 -exec mv {} /tmp/files_to_delete \;

Better to move first and delete later!!! ALWAYS

Get in the very good habit of moving files before you delete them, especially using scripts where one fat finger mistake can ruin your day!

Last edited by rbatte1; 09-05-2019 at 12:36 PM..

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find

FIND(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   FIND(1)

NAME

       find - find files

SYNOPSIS

       find pathname-list  expression

DESCRIPTION

       Find  recursively  descends the directory hierarchy for each pathname in the pathname-list (i.e., one or more pathnames) seeking files that
       match a boolean expression written in the primaries given below.  In the descriptions, the argument n is used as a decimal integer where +n
       means more than n, -n means less than n and n means exactly n.

       -name filename
		 True  if the filename argument matches the current file name.	Normal Shell argument syntax may be used if escaped (watch out for
		 `[', `?' and `*').

       -perm onum
		 True if the file permission flags exactly match the octal number onum (see chmod(1)).	If onum is prefixed by a minus sign,  more
		 flag bits (017777, see stat(2)) become significant and the flags are compared: (flags&onum)==onum.

       -type c	 True  if  the	type  of the file is c, where c is b, c, d or f for block special file, character special file, directory or plain
		 file.

       -links n  True if the file has n links.

       -user uname
		 True if the file belongs to the user uname (login name or numeric user ID).

       -group gname
		 True if the file belongs to group gname (group name or numeric group ID).

       -size n	 True if the file is n blocks long (512 bytes per block).

       -inum n	 True if the file has inode number n.

       -atime n  True if the file has been accessed in n days.

       -mtime n  True if the file has been modified in n days.

       -exec command
		 True if the executed command returns a zero value as exit status.  The end of the command must be punctuated by an escaped  semi-
		 colon.  A command argument `{}' is replaced by the current pathname.

       -ok command
		 Like  -exec  except that the generated command is written on the standard output, then the standard input is read and the command
		 executed only upon response y.

       -print	 Always true; causes the current pathname to be printed.

       -newer file
		 True if the current file has been modified more recently than the argument file.

       The primaries may be combined using the following operators (in order of decreasing precedence):

       1)  A parenthesized group of primaries and operators (parentheses are special to the Shell and must be escaped).

       2)  The negation of a primary (`!' is the unary not operator).

       3)  Concatenation of primaries (the and operation is implied by the juxtaposition of two primaries).

       4)  Alternation of primaries (`-o' is the or operator).

EXAMPLE

       To remove all files named `a.out' or `*.o' that have not been accessed for a week:

	 find / ( -name a.out -o -name '*.o' ) -atime +7 -exec rm {} ;

FILES

       /etc/passwd
       /etc/group

SEE ALSO

       sh(1), test(1), filsys(5)

BUGS

       The syntax is painful.

																	   FIND(1)