Command for finding and deleting files more than a day old. 1

[stla]

I would like to write a small script that would look for backup and text files in a specific directory that are older than 1 day and the delete these files.

Can anyone help me with my script?

This is what I have put together:

find /path/to/directory -name *.bak *.txt -ctime +1 -exec rm {};

However there is something wrong with my script.

Any ideas?

Best regards

 

[SamBones]

You need to "escape" the semicolon, or the shell will think it's a delimiter for a second command. You also need to quote anything with an asterisk. In other words, try this...

find /path/to/directory \( -name '*.bak' -o -name '*.txt' \) -ctime +1 -exec rm {} \;

Also, you might want to use mtime instead of ctime. That way if a file is being used and modified, it won't be deleted (till a day has passed).

 

[stla]

Thanks very much!

Would I be correct in thinking that the -o flag means something like 'either or'?

Best regards

 

[SamBones]

It is a logical "OR". So if the name matches '*.bak' OR '*.txt', it will then go on to test the ctime. If it is greater than one day, it will then do the "rm" to delete the file.