Batch file to delete files older than N days

Enjoy:

forfiles -p "C:\what\ever" -s -m *.* -d <number of days> -c "cmd /c del @path"

See forfiles documentation for more details.

For more goodies, refer to An A-Z Index of the Windows XP command line.

If you don't have forfiles installed on your machine, copy it from any Windows Server 2003 to your Windows XP machine at %WinDir%\system32\. This is possible since the EXE is fully compatible between Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

Later versions of Windows and Windows Server have it installed by default.

For Windows 7 and newer (including Windows 10):

The syntax has changed a little. Therefore the updated command is:

forfiles /p "C:\what\ever" /s /m *.* /D -<number of days> /C "cmd /c del @path"

Run the following commands:

ROBOCOPY C:\source C:\destination /mov /minage:7
del C:\destination /q

Move all the files (using /mov, which moves files and then deletes them as opposed to /move which moves whole filetrees which are then deleted) via robocopy to another location, and then execute a delete command on that path and you're all good.

Also if you have a directory with lots of data in it you can use /mir switch

Ok was bored a bit and came up with this, which contains my version of a poor man's Linux epoch replacement limited for daily usage (no time retention):

7daysclean.cmd

@echo off
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
set day=86400
set /a year=day*365
set /a strip=day*7
set dSource=C:\temp

call :epoch %date%
set /a slice=epoch-strip

for /f "delims=" %%f in ('dir /a-d-h-s /b /s %dSource%') do (
    call :epoch %%~tf
    if !epoch! LEQ %slice% (echo DELETE %%f ^(%%~tf^)) ELSE echo keep %%f ^(%%~tf^)
)
exit /b 0

rem Args[1]: Year-Month-Day
:epoch
    setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
    for /f "tokens=1,2,3 delims=-" %%d in ('echo %1') do set Years=%%d& set Months=%%e& set Days=%%f
    if "!Months:~0,1!"=="0" set Months=!Months:~1,1!
    if "!Days:~0,1!"=="0" set Days=!Days:~1,1!
    set /a Days=Days*day
    set /a _months=0
    set i=1&& for %%m in (31 28 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31) do if !i! LSS !Months! (set /a _months=!_months! + %%m*day&& set /a i+=1)
    set /a Months=!_months!
    set /a Years=(Years-1970)*year
    set /a Epoch=Years+Months+Days
    endlocal& set Epoch=%Epoch%
    exit /b 0

USAGE

set /a strip=day*7 : Change 7 for the number of days to keep.

set dSource=C:\temp : This is the starting directory to check for files.

NOTES

This is non-destructive code, it will display what would have happened.

Change :

if !epoch! LEQ %slice% (echo DELETE %%f ^(%%~tf^)) ELSE echo keep %%f ^(%%~tf^)

to something like :

if !epoch! LEQ %slice% del /f %%f

so files actually get deleted

February: is hard-coded to 28 days. Bissextile years is a hell to add, really. if someone has an idea that would not add 10 lines of code, go ahead and post so I add it to my code.

epoch: I did not take time into consideration, as the need is to delete files older than a certain date, taking hours/minutes would have deleted files from a day that was meant for keeping.

LIMITATION

epoch takes for granted your short date format is YYYY-MM-DD. It would need to be adapted for other settings or a run-time evaluation (read sShortTime, user-bound configuration, configure proper field order in a filter and use the filter to extract the correct data from the argument).

Did I mention I hate this editor's auto-formating? it removes the blank lines and the copy-paste is a hell.

I hope this helps.