Hi,

I have a directory which contains files.This Directory keeps getting in new files from time to time.I want to maintain only 15 files in that directory at any time and the old files should be deleted.

Eg:

Directory 'c' @'a/b/c contains:
1_a
2_a
3_a...

I want to delete all the old files and maintain only 15 such files.Please note the title of the files is in this format "1_a"...

I know I have to use the command :
find /a/b/c -type f -name '*.a' -mtime +10 -exec rm {} \;

I just want toincorporate that 15 files limit in that directory.

Thanks.

Hi

Try a "ls -t |tail -n +16" - it should give all files in a directory except the 15 newest files. (ls -t means sort by time, the "tail -n +16" means skip the 15 first lines.

So a
rm $(ls -t |tail -n +16)
would do the trick I think.

Hope this helps,
Guttorm.

Hi shiroh_1982,

The following script can be run from cron to control your target directory:

#!/bin/bash

(ls -1t /target/dir | sed 1,15d |xargs rm) 2> /dev/null


Replace '/target/dir' with the directory you want to maintain. This will keep the last 15 files modified in the directory and delete everything else.

Note that the ls command is using a one '1' numeral option and not a small L 'l' option.
Let me know if this solves your problem.

Best Regards