How to automatically delete files

bitbrain · Aug 12, 1999

I'm looking for a way of automatically deleting files older than 30 days. I figured I could use the @ scheduler but am not sure how to set-up the delete script. 
 
Any ideas? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

tdiller · Aug 13, 1999

Hi! 
 
You can probably find a utility somewhere that lets you delete files based upon the last accessed date. Or you could get a NT port of the UNIX ls and xargs commands and write a simple batch file to do it. 
 
Tim

bitbrain · Aug 13, 1999

I ended-up writting a VB program to delete the files. If anyone is interested, the source code follows: 
 
 
Private Sub Main() 
 
' This program will delete old files from the current directory. 
' It accepts an argument that determines how old the files should be before they are 
' deleted. 
' To use the program, first create a text file of the current directory be entering: 
' dir > dir.txt 
' This program reads the dir.txt file and parses out the file names. 
' The file date from the dir command is used to calcualte the age of the file. 
' Files older than the 'day' argument will be deleted. 
 
Dim i As Integer, intRecCnt As Integer, intDays As Integer 
Dim intStartPosition As Integer, intEndOfRecordPosition As Integer, intArgDays As Integer 
Dim strDOSFilename As String, strFileName As String 
Dim strFileList(2000) As String, strTempFile As String 
Dim dFileDate As Date, dCurrDate As Date 
Dim strArgs As String, strMsg As String 
 
' get the command line argument(s)... 
strArgs = Command 
 
' strFileName is used to determine if the file exists 
strDOSFilename = "dir.txt" 
strFileName = Dir(strDOSFilename) 
 
' perform edits... 
If strArgs = "" _ 
Or strFileName = "" Then 
strMsg = "This progam deletes files from the current directory that are" & vbCrLf & _ 
"greater than n days old." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _ 
"To use it, create a text file of file names by entering the following DOS command:" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _ 
"dir > dir.txt" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _ 
"Then, execute this program passing the number of days. For example," & vbCrLf & _ 
"to delete files older than 45 days, enter:" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _ 
"DeleteOldFiles 45" 
MsgBox strMsg 
Exit Sub 
End If 
 
If IsNumeric(strArgs) Then 
intArgDays = strArgs 
Else 
MsgBox "Invalid 'number of days' argument passed" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & strArgs 
Exit Sub 
End If 
 
 
' now, continue processing... 
 
On Error Resume Next 
Open strDOSFilename For Input Access Read As #1 
If Err Then 
MsgBox "Can't open file: " & strDOSFilename 
Exit Sub 
End If 
 
'Read the whole file into a single string 
strTempFile = Input$(LOF(1), #1) 
Close #1 
 
' Parse the file-string into individual records and put results into an array 
' by finding the CRLF characters 
 
intRecCnt = 0 
intStartPosition = 1 
intEndOfRecordPosition = InStr(intStartPosition, strTempFile, Chr$(13)) 'CR = 13 
While intEndOfRecordPosition >= intStartPosition 
intRecCnt = intRecCnt + 1 
 
strFileList(intRecCnt) = _ 
Mid$(strTempFile, intStartPosition, intEndOfRecordPosition - intStartPosition) + Chr$(0) 
 
intStartPosition = intEndOfRecordPosition + 2 
intEndOfRecordPosition = InStr(intStartPosition, strTempFile, Chr$(13)) 
Wend 
 
dCurrDate = Date 
 
' identify the records that have file names, exclude directories, check the days, & delete 
For i = 1 To intRecCnt 
 
' records with file names have a date on the left, identify the date by looking for the slash; 
' exclude directories 
If Mid(strFileList(i), 3, 1) = "/" _ 
And Not Mid(strFileList(i), 26, 3) = "DIR" Then 
 
' convert the text date into a date variable 
dFileDate = Format(Left(strFileList(i), 8), "MM/DD/YY") 
 
' calculate the age of the file 
intDays = DateDiff("d", dFileDate, dCurrDate) 
 
' if the number of days exceedes the passed number of days, delete the file 
If intDays > intArgDays Then 
 
' delete the file 
Kill (Right(strFileList(i), Len(strFileList(i)) - 39)) ' file name is at the end of the record 
 
End If 
End If 
Next i 
End Sub

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How to automatically delete files

bitbrain

Programmer

tdiller

MIS

bitbrain

Programmer

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