Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi Cero,

Yes, PATH Variable. The PATH has $HOME/bin included which has a value set and this gets appended when i run the script from command line.

But when the script is invoked via a batch procedure there is no value for $HOME and just /bin is getting appended into $PATH variable.

As you have highlighted in your earlier comment i have given the absolute path in my script now. Hopefully this should solve the problem when it runs the next time. finger crossed. Will update you soon.

---------- Post updated at 06:51 AM ---------- Previous update was at 06:49 AM ----------

one clarifitication

the command which i have used above, will first fetch all the directories and then sent as a bulk input to the rm command or the find fetches one row sends to rm, then fetches second row and send to rm.

can you clarify that doubt.

---------- Post updated at 07:06 AM ---------- Previous update was at 06:51 AM ----------

Hi Cero,

thanks for your valuable inputs and time. I have modified the script to include the absolute path as u have mentioned earlier.

Also the command i used "find * -depth -type d -ctime +84 -exec rm -rf {} \;" will first all the directories and sub directories and they are passed as bulk input to the rm command. Please correct if my understanding is wrong.

The reason for the above query is because when the child directory D12 is deleted the timestamp on D1 is changing to sysdate (i persume that the time i see in ls is mtime)

The time you see in "ls -la" is indeed the equivalent of "-mtime".
The time you see in "ls -lac" is the equivalent of "-ctime".

Personally I would not base any processing on the value of "-ctime" found a directory timestamp. It is just the timestamp from when the inode was last changed. It is not unusual for "-ctime" to be more recent than "-mtime" in the same directory entry.
Some backup software changes this timestamp.


In fact the whole idea is dodgy because the "-ctime" stamp on a parent can be older than of the subdirectory ... and you are issuing "rm -r".

Hi Cero,

Thanks for the update once again.

Well i need to find all the directories older than x days and housekeep them. the problem i am facing is, only the child directory D12 is deleted and not the parent directory D1 when i use the command find * -depth -type d -ctime +84 -exec rm -rf {} \; (Both D1 and D12 are created on the same day)

My observation is when the child directory D12 is deleted, the ctime of parent directory D1 changes to sysdate and hence the above command does not list the parent directory as it doesnt satisfy the X days old condition. Am i right in my interpretation.

Yes, you clear files by date and then empty directories.