How to delete files older than X hours

Question

I m writing a bash script that needs to delete old files   It s currently implemented using    find  LOCATION -name  REQUIRED FILES -type f -mtime  1 -delete   This will delete of the files older than 1 day   However  what if I need a finer resolution that 1 day  say like 6 hours old  Is there a nice clean way to do it  like there is using find and -mtime

User · Answer

For SunOS 5 10    Example 6 Selecting a File Using 24-hour Mode    The descriptions of -atime  -ctime  and -mtime use the  ter-  minology n   24-hour periods    For example  a file accessed  at 23 59 is selected by       example  find   -atime -1 -print      at 00 01 the next day  less than 24 hours  later   not  more  than one day ago   The midnight boundary between days has no  effect on the 24-hour calculation

User · Answer

You could to this trick  create a file 1 hour ago  and use the -newer file argument    Or use touch -t to create such a file

User · Answer

Does your find have the -mmin option  That can let you test the number of mins since last modification   find  LOCATION -name  REQUIRED FILES -type f -mmin  360 -delete   Or maybe look at using tmpwatch to do the same job  phjr also recommended tmpreaper in the comments

User · Answer

Here is the approach that worked for me  and I don t see it being used above     find  path to the folder -name     -mmin  59 -delete  gt   dev null   deleting all the files older than 59 minutes while leaving the folders intact

User · Answer

You could to this trick  create a file 1 hour ago  and use the -newer file argument    Or use touch -t to create such a file

User · Answer

You could to this trick  create a file 1 hour ago  and use the -newer file argument    Or use touch -t to create such a file

User · Answer

If one s find does not have -mmin and if one also is stuck with a find that accepts only integer values for -mtime  then all is not necessarily lost if one considers that  older than  is similar to  not newer than    If we were able to create a file that that has an mtime of our cut-off time  we can ask find to locate the files that are  not newer than  our reference file   To create a file that has the correct time stamp is a bit involved because a system that doesn t have an adequate find probably also has a less-than-capable date command that could do things like   date   Y m d H M S -d   6 hours ago    Fortunately  other old tools that can manage this  albeit in a more unwieldy way    Consider that six hours is 21600 seconds   We want to find the time that is six hours ago in a format that is useful     date  amp  amp  perl -e   d localtime time  -21600      printf   4d 02d 02d 02d 02d  02d n    d 5  1900  d 4  1  d 3   d 2   d 1   d 0    gt  Thu Apr 16 04 50 57 CDT 2020 202004152250 57   The perl statement did produce a useful date  but it has to be put to better use     date  amp  amp  touch -t  perl -e   d localtime time  -21600      printf   4d 02d 02d 02d 02d  02d n        d 5  1900  d 4  1  d 3   d 2   d 1   d 0    ref file  amp  amp  ls -l ref file Thu Apr 16 04 53 54 CDT 2020 -rw-rw-rw-   1 root     sys            0 Apr 15 22 53 ref file   Now the solution for this old UNIX is something along the lines of     find   -type f   -newer ref file -a   -name ref file -exec rm -f           It might also be a good idea to clean up our reference file       rm -f ref file

User · Answer

-mmin is for minutes   Try looking at the man page   man find   for more types

User · Answer

Here is what one can do for going on the way  iconoclast was wondering about in  their comment on another answer   use crontab for user or an  etc crontab to create file  tmp hour     m h dom mon dow user  command 0         root  usr bin touch  tmp hour  gt   dev null 2 gt  amp 1   and then use this to run your command   find  tmp  -daystart -maxdepth 1 -not -newer  tmp hour -type f -name  for one hour files   -exec do something

User · Answer

-mmin is for minutes   Try looking at the man page   man find   for more types

User · Answer

find  PATH -name  log prefix    log ext -mmin   num mins -exec rm -f

User · Answer

Does your find have the -mmin option  That can let you test the number of mins since last modification   find  LOCATION -name  REQUIRED FILES -type f -mmin  360 -delete   Or maybe look at using tmpwatch to do the same job  phjr also recommended tmpreaper in the comments

User · Answer

You could to this trick  create a file 1 hour ago  and use the -newer file argument    Or use touch -t to create such a file

User · Answer

Does your find have the -mmin option  That can let you test the number of mins since last modification   find  LOCATION -name  REQUIRED FILES -type f -mmin  360 -delete   Or maybe look at using tmpwatch to do the same job  phjr also recommended tmpreaper in the comments

User · Answer

Does your find have the -mmin option  That can let you test the number of mins since last modification   find  LOCATION -name  REQUIRED FILES -type f -mmin  360 -delete   Or maybe look at using tmpwatch to do the same job  phjr also recommended tmpreaper in the comments

User · Answer

-mmin is for minutes   Try looking at the man page   man find   for more types

User · Answer

If one s find does not have -mmin and if one also is stuck with a find that accepts only integer values for -mtime  then all is not necessarily lost if one considers that  older than  is similar to  not newer than    If we were able to create a file that that has an mtime of our cut-off time  we can ask find to locate the files that are  not newer than  our reference file   To create a file that has the correct time stamp is a bit involved because a system that doesn t have an adequate find probably also has a less-than-capable date command that could do things like   date   Y m d H M S -d   6 hours ago    Fortunately  other old tools that can manage this  albeit in a more unwieldy way    Consider that six hours is 21600 seconds   We want to find the time that is six hours ago in a format that is useful     date  amp  amp  perl -e   d localtime time  -21600      printf   4d 02d 02d 02d 02d  02d n    d 5  1900  d 4  1  d 3   d 2   d 1   d 0    gt  Thu Apr 16 04 50 57 CDT 2020 202004152250 57   The perl statement did produce a useful date  but it has to be put to better use     date  amp  amp  touch -t  perl -e   d localtime time  -21600      printf   4d 02d 02d 02d 02d  02d n        d 5  1900  d 4  1  d 3   d 2   d 1   d 0    ref file  amp  amp  ls -l ref file Thu Apr 16 04 53 54 CDT 2020 -rw-rw-rw-   1 root     sys            0 Apr 15 22 53 ref file   Now the solution for this old UNIX is something along the lines of     find   -type f   -newer ref file -a   -name ref file -exec rm -f           It might also be a good idea to clean up our reference file       rm -f ref file

User · Answer

-mmin is for minutes   Try looking at the man page   man find   for more types

User · Answer

If you do not have  -mmin  in your version of  find   then  -mtime -0 041667  gets pretty close to  within the last hour   so in your case  use   -mtime   X   0 041667    so  if X means 6 hours  then   find   -mtime  0 25 -ls   works because 24 hours   0 25   6 hours

User · Answer

Here is the approach that worked for me  and I don t see it being used above     find  path to the folder -name     -mmin  59 -delete  gt   dev null   deleting all the files older than 59 minutes while leaving the folders intact

User · Answer

For SunOS 5 10    Example 6 Selecting a File Using 24-hour Mode    The descriptions of -atime  -ctime  and -mtime use the  ter-  minology n   24-hour periods    For example  a file accessed  at 23 59 is selected by       example  find   -atime -1 -print      at 00 01 the next day  less than 24 hours  later   not  more  than one day ago   The midnight boundary between days has no  effect on the 24-hour calculation

User · Answer

If you do not have  -mmin  in your version of  find   then  -mtime -0 041667  gets pretty close to  within the last hour   so in your case  use   -mtime   X   0 041667    so  if X means 6 hours  then   find   -mtime  0 25 -ls   works because 24 hours   0 25   6 hours

User · Answer

find  PATH -name  log prefix    log ext -mmin   num mins -exec rm -f

User · Answer

Here is what one can do for going on the way  iconoclast was wondering about in  their comment on another answer   use crontab for user or an  etc crontab to create file  tmp hour     m h dom mon dow user  command 0         root  usr bin touch  tmp hour  gt   dev null 2 gt  amp 1   and then use this to run your command   find  tmp  -daystart -maxdepth 1 -not -newer  tmp hour -type f -name  for one hour files   -exec do something

[bash] How to delete files older than X hours

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