need help with scripting

[elzschiko]

hello,

i need help with scripting @hp-ux 10.20 .

following problem:

a log-file directory has over 7000 files. i want to write a script the will delete the files. the problem is, not all files should be deleted. whats the syntax to delete the files until a specified date e.g. 31.12.2004

can anybody help me?

greets
daniel

: sorry for my bad english ;-)

 

[KenCunningham]

man find

eg:

cd <log directory>

find <log directory> -mtime +<days since 31.12.2004> -exec rm {} \;

For safety, use

find <log directory> -mtime +<days since 31.12.2004> -exec ls -la {} \;

first to confirm that you're about to delete only the files you want to delete.

 

[elzschiko]

thx for your help.

to modify the command to show all files the will be older than 100 days, but not older than 200 days i would use the following command.
is it ok?

find <log directory> -mtime +<\>100\<200> -exec ls -la {} \;


greets
daniel

 

[KenCunningham]

Sorry, no I don't think -mtime can be used like that. As far as I'm aware it can only be used in this context for files older than 100 (ie +100) days, which would include files older than 200 days by default. As I don't have an HP machine to hand, I stand to be corrected, however....

 

[hoinz]

what about this:
find dir -mtime +100 -mtime -200 -exec ...

 

[KenCunningham]

As far as I can see from a test using a Solaris box, this still returns details of files > 200 days old.

 

[hoinz]

Ken,
I am quite surprised by your findings.
I tested with HP-UX, and it works.
As far as my understanding of find command goes, it should work for all flavours of UNIX.
'-mtime +100 -mtime -200' just means 'older then 100 days AND younger than 200 days'.
I haven't a Solarix box at hand though.
regards

 

[hoinz]

maybe you have to give this 'AND' explicitely on some kinds of Unix:
find dir -mtime +100 -a -mtime -200 -exec ...

 

[KenCunningham]

Interesting, Hoinz. Executing the command on one of our servers somes back with the following (extract):

drwxrwxrwx 11 ohmstest ohms 512 Sep 20 11:19 ..
-r--r----- 1 ohmstest ohms 8248 Feb 26 2004 act_trig.pc
-r--r----- 1 ohmstest ohms 6092 Sep 11 1996 addpymt.pc
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ohmstest ohms 13322 Aug 21 2003 addpymth.c
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ohmstest ohms 34684 Aug 21 2003 addpymth.o
-r--r----- 1 ohmstest ohms 5201 Feb 26 2004 addpymth.pc
-r--r----- 1 ohmstest ohms 26515 Sep 10 2003 agrupr.pc
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ohmstest ohms 68448 Aug 21 2003 cash.o
-r--r----- 1 ohmstest ohms 14847 Mar 1 2004 cash.pc
-r--r----- 1 ohmstest ohms 12419 Feb 11 2002 est_trig.pc
-r--r----- 1 ohmstest ohms 2235 Sep 2 2004 hpm_hun_hierarchy_movement
.sql
-r--r----- 1 ohmstest ohms 578 May 13 2002 is_alpha_hpm.c
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ohmstest ohms 70926 Aug 21 2003 lsc_bacs.c
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ohmstest ohms 90444 Aug 21 2003 lsc_bacs.o
-r--r----- 1 ohmstest ohms 22282 Feb 26 2004 lsc_bacs.pc
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ohmstest ohms 126394 Aug 21 2003 lsc_dirdebit.c
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ohmstest ohms 120368 Aug 21 2003 lsc_dirdebit.o
-r--r----- 1 ohmstest ohms 31377 Feb 18 2003 lsc_dirdebit.pc
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ohmstest ohms 112781 Aug 21 2003 lsc_set_est.c

From which you will see (if my interpretation is correct), that files from 2002/2003 and before are being returned. Whilst these are older than 100 days, they are not younger than 200. A Solaris limitation perhaps? I'd be interested to see the -mtime option for find from the HP man page (HP man site seems exceptionally slow today!).

 

[hoinz]

yes, I see.
Here is an extract from my man pages.
Seems it doesn't help much.

In the descriptions of the primaries, the argument n represents a
decimal integer; +n means more than n, -n means less than n, and n
means exactly n.
.....
-mtime n True if the file modification time subtracted
from the initialization time is n-1 to n
multiples of 24 h. The initialization time
shall be a time between the invocation of the
find utility and the first access by that
invocation of the find utility to any file
specified in its path operands.

 

[KenCunningham]

Thanks. I guess for other flavours one could touch a file with a date equivalent to 200 days previous and then use -mtime and -newer to filter out the files between 100 and 200 days old. Must give it a try when I get the chance!