Delete files older than 10 days using shell script in Unix

bash shell unix find
Steve88 picture Steve88 · Nov 21, 2012 · Viewed 297.3k times · Source

I'm new to shell scripts, can anyone help? I want to delete scripts in a folder from the current date back to 10 days. The scripts looks like:

2012.11.21.09_33_52.script
2012.11.21.09_33_56.script
2012.11.21.09_33_59.script

The script will run in every 10 day with Crontab, that's why I need the current date.

Answer

Gilles Quenot picture Gilles Quenot · Nov 21, 2012

find is the common tool for this kind of task :

find ./my_dir -mtime +10 -type f -delete

EXPLANATIONS

  • ./my_dir your directory (replace with your own)
  • -mtime +10 older than 10 days
  • -type f only files
  • -delete no surprise. Remove it to test your find filter before executing the whole command

And take care that ./my_dir exists to avoid bad surprises !

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