How to delete all files older than 3 days when Argument list too long

Question

I ve got a log file directory that has 82000 files and directories in it  about half and half    I need to delete all the file and directories which are older than 3 days   In a directory that has 37000 files in it  I was able to do this with   find   -mtime  3 -exec rm         But with 82000 files directories  I get the error       usr bin find  Argument list too long   How can I get around this error so that I can delete all files directories that are older than 3 days

User · Answer

Another solution for the original question, esp. useful if you want to remove only SOME of the older files in a folder, would be smth like this:

find . -name "*.sess" -mtime +100

and so on.. Quotes block shell wildcards, thus allowing you to "find" millions of files :)

User · Answer

To delete all files and directories within the current directory   find   -mtime  3   xargs rm -Rf   Or alternatively  more in line with the OP s original command   find   -mtime  3 -exec rm -Rf --

User · Answer

Can also use   find   -mindepth 1 -mtime  3 -delete   To not delete target directory

[linux] How to delete all files older than 3 days when "Argument list too long"?

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