删除目录中的旧文件

Question

okay maybe this sounds simple, but it has been a bit challenging to me

I have a directory called backups and it has (backup files + other files)

backups files:

../backups/backup-2013_03_03.zip
../backups/backup-2013_03_05.zip
../backups/backup-2013_01_01.zip
../backups/backup-2013_08_16.zip
../backups/backup-2013_02_28.zip
../backups/backup-2013_01_21.zip
../backups/backup-2013_03_29.zip
../backups/backup-2013_04_05.zip

I'm trying to delete backup files older than 90 days.

 find /var/tmp/stuff -mtime +90 -print | xargs /bin/rm

seems to work, but I'm not able to limit the search to backup files only. "files which starts with backup*"

I have tried adding "-iname backup" option to find command argument, thinking it would do the trick but it doesn't seems to work. Any ideas?

Thank you

Answer 1

The parameter to iname matches against the full filename, so you need a trailing wildcard:

find /var/tmp/stuff -mtime +90 -iname "backup*" -print | xargs /bin/rm

You could also use find's -exec argument, but personally I find the syntax quite arcane. I prefer xargs. find /var/tmp/stuff -mtime +90 -iname "backup*" -exec /bin/rm '{}'

Or, as damienfrancois points out, GNU find can take a -delete argument. This is the best solution because a) it is shorter and b) it is more efficient because the deletion happens within the find process. exec and xargs will both spawn one new process per file to delete. Source: GNU manual However, as wildplasser points out, it could also be dangerous - -delete will remove directories by default. To only delete files, use -type f .

find /var/tmp/stuff -type f -mtime +90 -iname "backup*" -delete

Answer 2

You can pipe through grep before calling rm. Something like:

find /var/tmp/stuff -mtime +90 -print | grep 'backup-' | xargs /bin/rm

while the find utility has all kinds of options to single handedly do this, including the deleting as noted in other answers, I can never remember any but the most basic options.

find "stuff" | grep "some_other_stuff" | xargs "do_stuff"

seems much easier to remember for me.

Answer 3

You could use -exec option of find along with -iname . Since you want to delete only files, you would need to specify -type f

find /var/tmp/stuff -type f -iname 'backup*' -mtime +90 -exec rm {} +

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If you prefer xargs like me

find /var/tmp/stuff -type f -iname 'backup*' -mtime +90 -print0 | xargs -0 rm

Note : It's recommended to use find -print0 with xargs -0 to avoid weird file name caveats