delete files by modified date

[hcclnoodles]

Hi, im sure this is a simple question but I have a director y with thousands of files in it (all randomly named and all created ant differnet times),

I would like to find a way of deleting all of the files that were created before 22 November (which is the majority of them) without having to individually paste each one into a "rm" command

Is there a way I can delete using the unix modified date as a parameter ??

 

[KenCunningham]

find <path to dir> -mtime +4 (for example) | xargs rm

Be careful, and test using xargs ls first to check you're hitting the correct files. HTH.

 

[hcclnoodles]

i presume "-mtime + 4" is todays date minus 4 days ?

 

[KenCunningham]

find <path to dir> -mtime +4 (for example) | xargs rm

Be careful, and test using xargs ls first to check you're hitting the correct files. HTH.

 

[PHV]

man find
man touch

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[KenCunningham]

Sorry about the double posting - these seem to be happening regularly these days. See PHV's post, but yes, mtime is todays date (and time when the command is issued) minus 4 days. As I said, using ls first will clarify exactly which files you are about to delete.

 

[Mike042]

You could also look at the directory and find a filename (or create one with touch -t) and delete every file older than that filename with:
find /path/to/dir ! -newer /path/to/dir/filename | xargs rm

Note that /path/to/dir/filename is also deleted as it is not newer that itself.

I hope that helps.

Mike