Bash: date based file maintenance
 

I am trying to maintain 60 dyas of archive files in a directory. Here was my first attempt.

#!/bin/bash
#
cd /home/stuff/archive
touch -d "60 days ago" marker.file
ls >file.tmp
while read: do
if [ $REPLY -ot marker.file ]; then
rm -f $REPLY
fi
done <file.tmp

Pretty simple.... if it worked; which it doesn't.
Unfortunately, the "if" statement compares the modify date, not the create date that touch uses.
I have tried using the "-m" with touch to no avail. Nothing I have done so far has been able to back date the modify date of the marker.file; required for this script to work.

Is ther another simle way to do this function?


Paul....

Sure. The find command has all you need in a single command !
It can compare dates of files, based on a reference file like yours markers.file, or just 60 days ago, and execute any command based on this test, rm, mv, cp, etc...

find . -mtime +60
find . -older marker

touch -t YYYYMMDDMMSS

This what I use to clean up log files older than 40 days:

If logs the purged files to $logfilename. If you don't want the log, use only the "find" statement and omit the "if .. fi".

BE CAREFUL:

This is a script containing "rm". One typo and you can wipe out your hard disk. Test it with a command other than "rm" (for example "ls")!

jlinkels

Thanks
 

Thanks _ The "find" command is just too simple for words. One line programming.... you just have to love Linux!