Using find to delete a specific directory and its contents 1

[ITGoddess]

Greetings-

Having some trouble with syntax for the "find" command. Using HP_UX 10.20.

I place a new directory "todaysdate" containing copied files in a specific directory "/db2/bkrpts" daily. This is done with the following script executed from crontab.

#Get the files, make the directory
/bin/cp -pR `find /tmp /users/download/XXX -type f -user osi -mtime 0` /db2/bkrpts/`date +"%m%d%ym`

This results in:
/db2/bkrpts/040202
/db2/bkrpts/040302
and so on....

I want to delete the directories and their contents after 25 days have passed. I do NOT want to delete the /db2/bkrpts directory. Ideally directory 04/02/02 and contents would be removed from /db2/bkrpts on 04/28/02.

This is what I have thus far. I tested with a test directory called 040302m:

find /db2/bkrpts/ -type d -name `??????m` -mtime +25 -exec rm -r {} \;

Unfortunately results in sh: 040302m: not found.

Sorry for what is likely a very mundane question. I would greatly appreciate any help offered.

Thanks,
-Michelle

 

[RobJordan]

find /db2/bkrpts/ -type d -mtime +25 -exec rm -rf {} \;

the -name should't be necessary, -type
and -mtime should suffice.

I also change the rm -r to rm -rf
which overrides the file permissions if necessary.

Robert Robert G. Jordan

Robert@JORDAN2000.com

http://www.JORDAN2000.com/scripts

Unix Sys Admin
Chicago, Illinois U.S.A.

 

[toolkit]

Robert,
This will also delete the bkrpts directory!
A safer solution:

DIR=/db2/bkrpts
NAME=`basename $DIR`
find $DIR -type d ! -name $NAME -mtime +25 -exec rm -rf {} \;

Cheers, Neil

 

[RobJordan]

Yes, I overlooked that when speed reading Robert G. Jordan

Robert@JORDAN2000.com

http://www.JORDAN2000.com/scripts

Unix Sys Admin
Chicago, Illinois U.S.A.

 

[MikeLacey]

<grin> scary stuff, I chickened out from answering this one! Mike
&quot;Experience is the comb that Nature gives us after we are bald.&quot;

Is that a haiku?
I never could get the hang
of writing those things.

 

[RobJordan]

yes, better to create a tar file or some backup
before testing rm scripts. Robert G. Jordan

Robert@JORDAN2000.com

http://www.JORDAN2000.com/scripts

Unix Sys Admin
Chicago, Illinois U.S.A.

 

[RobJordan]

a good way to test is to change the rm -r command
to ls -ld or change the -exec command to -OK Robert G. Jordan

Robert@JORDAN2000.com

http://www.JORDAN2000.com/scripts

Unix Sys Admin
Chicago, Illinois U.S.A.

 

[ITGoddess]

Yes, I was trying to exclude the parent directory /db2/bkrpts, hence the `??????m`.

Scary stuff indeed!! Absolutely!! I test the 'heck' out of crontab scripts, particularly ones involving automated file removals.

Many thanks for your suggestions/comments. I very much appreciate it.

Regards &
-Michelle

 

[MikeLacey]

Just an aside....

I once worked for a very nice guy who I won't name; worked for and with him for ten years until he got a job in Holland. He was, however, sometimes impulsive. He managed to delete the entire contents of every filesystem on a Sequent machine using a recursive delete command I won't reproduce here. Twice, he did it twice....

He now claims it doesn't count because it was a development machine Mike
&quot;Experience is the comb that Nature gives us after we are bald.&quot;

Is that a haiku?
I never could get the hang
of writing those things.