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Linux Operating System Introduction
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Introduction to Linux Operating System

Delete Files Older than ‘x’ Days in Linux

TechLila Computer Linux

Delete Files Older than ‘x’ Days in Linux

Avatar for Rajesh Namase Rajesh Namase
Last updated on: November 30, 2020

Today, we will show a way to you by which you can delete files which are older than ‘X’ days. Suppose you want to delete files older than 7 days then this article will help you to do that. The find utility permits you to pass in a couple of interesting arguments, including one to execute another command on each file. In order to figure out what files are older than a certain number of days, we’ll use this find utility and then use the rm command to delete them. The command syntax is as follows:

find /path/to/files* -mtime +5 -exec rm {} \;

We’re not liable for any data loss that may occur. We recommended you to the list the files and check before deleting them, by running the following command:

find /path/to/files* -mtime +5 -exec ls {} \;

Note: There are spaces between rm, {}, and \;

Delete Files Older than 5 Days
READ
How to Create Repository in Linux

Command Explanation:

The first argument in the above command is the path to the files. The second argument is -mtime is used to specify how many days old the file is. If you enter +5, it will find files older than five days. The last argument is -exec allows you to pass in a command such as rm. The {} \; at the end is required to terminate the command.

This should work on almost all versions of Linux like Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat, Suse, etc. If you are facing any problem which seems quite impossible here then let us know in the comments below.

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Avatar for Rajesh Namase

Rajesh Namase

Rajesh Namase is a professional blogger and founder of TechLila blog. Also, he's a passionate entrepreneur, internet marketer, and fitness freak.

Category

  • Linux

Tags

Linux Commands, Linux Tutorials

Reader Interactions

What people are saying

  1. Avatar for Suraj SalunkheSuraj Salunkhe

    I used this trick! Awesome trick! Thanks for sharing such a good trick :)

    Reply
  2. Avatar for Amruta PatilAmruta Patil

    Ya I used this cammand during practice session of RHCE.

    Reply
  3. Avatar for BenBen

    find ./* -mtime +5 -exec ls {} \; >> ./5DaysOld

    alias 5DayLs="find ./* -mtime +5 -exec ls {} \; >> ./5DaysOld"

    Crufted something together out of your suggestion here. A method for making a plain text file listing of files five days old. Easier to keep a record for viewing prior to removing files. Users can then use cat, vi, vim, gedit, emacs to see what they may toss out.

    find ./* -mtime +5 -exec ls {} \; >> ./5DaysOld

    Breaking it down ./ is the current directory. Find using a current directory often safer than using the / cannon. >> appends to a file, if it does not exist, it gets created.

    Even thought it may useful as alias. Probably could / should port it to a shell script first. Being lazy though, late here.

    Reply
  4. Avatar for Ben PiperBen Piper

    Thanks! I used this syntax in a cron job.

    Reply
  5. Avatar for VivianVivian

    The good tip to delete files older than certain days. However, if your argument list is long (I think the max is 65535 or something along those lines) this will not work.

    I have a custom script that does the job:


    #!/bin/bash

    cd /directory-to-be-checked
    allfiles=`ls`
    NOW=`date +%s`
    for filename in $allfiles
    do
    OLD=`stat -c %Z $filename`
    if [ "$2" == "" ]
    then
    DELAY=86400
    else
    let "DELAY=$2 * 86400"
    fi
    AGE=`expr $NOW - $OLD`
    #echo "Delay is $DELAY and Age is $AGE"
    #exit 0
    if [ $AGE -gt $DELAY ]
    then
    #echo "File $filename is $AGE"
    fstamp=`ls -l $filename`
    if [ "$1" == "DEL" ]
    then
    echo "Deleting file $filename"
    `rm -f $filename`
    else
    echo "$fstamp"
    fi
    fi

    Done.

    Reply
    • Avatar for Rajesh NamaseRajesh Namase

      Thanks for giving the script.

      Reply
      • Avatar for VivianVivian

        Your welcome Namase.

        Call the script like so:

        ./scriptname.sh DEL numDays

        If numDays is not specified it will use the minimum of 1 so make sure you specify numDays. I’m not liable for how you use this script and for any data loss that may occur.

        Reply
  6. Avatar for PawanPawan

    if I want Delete Dirs and files from 30 days old to my remote machine and one thing excluding 1 and 2 or 3 dirs and so how can i done this ..?? Please share your thoughts.

    Reply
  7. Avatar for AliAli

    I use this technique it is very useful for deleting trc file in oracle

    Reply
  8. Avatar for EthanEthan

    Thanks for sharing this useful command for all users. We can easily delete older files in Linux. I am also looking for it and finally got the solution here.

    Reply
  9. Avatar for GregGreg

    Does this get files in sub-directories as well? If so, how would I do it so it doesn’t?

    find /home/greg/logs -type f -mtime +5 -exec rm {} ;

    Reply
  10. Avatar for Suraj SalunkheSuraj Salunkhe

    I was looking for such command. Really helpful. And thanks for sharing the script, Vivian.

    Reply

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