Login or Register to Ask a Question and Join Our Community


Shell Programming and Scripting

Delete all files except last modified

Login to Discuss or Reply to this Discussion in Our Community

 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Delete all files except last modified
# 1  
Old 07-19-2010
Delete all files except last modified
Hello All,

I need to delete all the files with a particular naming format at a fixed path except the latest 1. Please help.

example:

At path /tmp, I have 3 files viz: log1, log2 and log3. file log2 was the one that was modified most recently. So I need to find and delete log1 and log3 only.

Please suggest the shell code for this.
# 2  
Old 07-19-2010
Code:
ls -lrt /tmp/*log* | tail -1 > out_file #this is ur latest file

for file in `ls /tmp/*`
do
if [[ file == `echo out_file`]]
then 
echo "$file is the latest modified file"
else
rm file 
#dont do test ur script with this script it will definately delete files. so put some other command and then test it###
fi
done

i just found a better way of what u intend to do....

Code:
touch -t `date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S` /tmp/$$
find /tmp/ -type f -newer /tmp/$$ -exec rm {} \;
rm /tmp/$$

try this also
Last edited by dazdseg; 07-19-2010 at 11:10 AM.. Reason: better way
# 3  
Old 07-19-2010
MySQL
thanks...

it worked after combining while loop and find -newer. Smilie

will try the second code you have given as well, it looks more robust!
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

9 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Copy files from one drive to another, keeping most recently modified files

Hi all, I am a bit of a beginner with shell scripting.. What I want to do is merge two drives, for example moving all data from X to Y. If a file in X doesn't exist in Y, it will be moved there. If a file in X also exists in Y, the most recently modified file will be moved to (or kept) in... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: apocolapse
5 Replies

2. Solaris

Which files to modified in Solaris 10?

Hi All, In Solaris 10, where can I change or modified parameter like /dev/ip ip_ignore_redirect 1? If I use ndd command to change it, it will only last until the next reboot but I need to set it permanently. For Solaris 9, I will refer to /etc/rc2.d/S69inet but this file is no longer there... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: mailbox80
2 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

help: find and modified files script

hello all im a newbie in the linux world ..i have just started creating basic scripts in linux ..i am using rhel 5 ..the thing is i wanted to create a find script where i could find the last modified file and directory in the directory given as input by the user and storing the output in a file so... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: tarunicon
6 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

find files modified more than a day

Hi All, I am using the below command to check the files modified within last 24hours find /home/karthik -mtime -1 -type f -exec ls -l {} \; What parameter do i need to add in the above command to check the files modified in last 2 or 3 days Kindly let me know if any other alternative... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: karthikn7974
2 Replies

5. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Delete the last modified file

Hi All, I have the following script to delete the last modified file in a directory. #!/bin/ksh if file in $(ls -t /home/KOP/Purge | head -1) then rm -f $file fi But I keep getting the error 0653-901 Cannot get file status Any suggestions or comments as to where I'm getting... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: kingofprussia
1 Replies

6. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

how to retrieve original contents of a modified file (modified using vi)

Made changes to a file using vi editor and saved those changes now realised that the changes are not required How can I get the previous version of the file.i.e the one which was there on which I had made changes (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: novice100
3 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

list last 10 days modified files

All, Is there is anyother single command that will handle ls -lrt | tail -10 Please let me know Thanks, Arun. (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: arunkumar_mca
1 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Finding out the last modified time for files

I need to find out the last modified time for the files which are older than 6 months. If I use ls -l, the files which are older than 6 months, I am just getting the day, month and year instead of exact time. I am using Korn shell, and SUN OS. Thanks in Advance, Kiran (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: kumariak
3 Replies

9. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Finding modified files

Last week I was using the command: ' find /directory -mtime -2 -print' and it showed all the files modified within that period. However, now it only displays the directories and not the files modified. The only thing that changed is that I was granted access to some files. Thanks (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: rhayabusa
2 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question