Delete backups older than 7 days through shell script

Rk_Raj · 07-15-2011, 01:04 AM

Hi friends,

I am having my own testing server in which mySQL database will be backed up daily. in the format mysql_backup_dd/mm/yy.tar.gz in my home folder

I need to setup a cron job to delete the backups older than 7 days. please tell me how to do this.

EricTRA · 07-15-2011, 01:22 AM

Hello,

The easiest way is to write a Bash script that goes through the files in the backup directory, compares the date with the date saved in the file name and deletes if older then 7 days. Or just delete all backup files older then 7 days with a find command in combination with -exec. Have a look at the man page for find, more in particular the mtime option. Then you can run that script through a cron job.

Kind regards,

Eric

lithos · 07-15-2011, 09:06 AM

Using find command it would be like:

Code:

find . -name 'mysql_backup_*' -mtime +7 -delete

which would search for All mysql_backup_..... files within the current dir and subdirs and if found then delete it.

Works for me.

theNbomr · 07-15-2011, 10:51 AM

Sounds like a job for logrotate. Technically, it isn't a log file, but the type of data doesn't really matter.
--- rod.