Delete files older than 10 days using shell script in Unix

Just spicing up the shell script above to delete older files but with logging and calculation of elapsed time

#!/bin/bash

path="/data/backuplog/"
timestamp=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)    
filename=log_$timestamp.txt    
log=$path$filename
days=7

START_TIME=$(date +%s)

find $path -maxdepth 1 -name "*.txt"  -type f -mtime +$days  -print -delete >> $log

echo "Backup:: Script Start -- $(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M)" >> $log


... code for backup ...or any other operation .... >> $log


END_TIME=$(date +%s)

ELAPSED_TIME=$(( $END_TIME - $START_TIME ))


echo "Backup :: Script End -- $(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M)" >> $log
echo "Elapsed Time ::  $(date -d 00:00:$ELAPSED_TIME +%Hh:%Mm:%Ss) "  >> $log

The code adds a few things.

• log files named with a timestamp
• log folder specified
• find looks for *.txt files only in the log folder
• type f ensures you only deletes files
• maxdepth 1 ensures you dont enter subfolders
• log files older than 7 days are deleted ( assuming this is for a backup log)
• notes the start / end time
• calculates the elapsed time for the backup operation...

Note: to test the code, just use -print instead of -print -delete. But do check your path carefully though.

Note: Do ensure your server time is set correctly via date - setup timezone/ntp correctly . Additionally check file times with 'stat filename'

Note: mtime can be replaced with mmin for better control as mtime discards all fractions (older than 2 days (+2 days) actually means 3 days ) when it deals with getting the timestamps of files in the context of days

-mtime +$days  --->  -mmin  +$((60*24*$days))

If you can afford working via the file data, you can do

find -mmin +14400 -delete

find is the common tool for this kind of task :

find ./my_dir -mtime +10 -type f -delete

EXPLANATIONS

• ./my_dir your directory (replace with your own)
• -mtime +10 older than 10 days
• -type f only files
• -delete no surprise. Remove it to test your find filter before executing the whole command

And take care that ./my_dir exists to avoid bad surprises !