Script to delete files based on timestamp

[Jay]

Hi All,

Here is my requirement.

I have to delete older files based on timestamp.

I have not started developing yet.

I need some ideas to achieve this.

My idea:

list files : ls -ltr
get file names : cut -c 55-
get last file: tail -1

then give the rm command.

The problem is there might be two or more files with the same timestamp.

I am stuck as to how to delete these two or more files.

If you have any ideas, please let me know.

Thanks
Jay

[ray.wurlod]

Investigate the UNIX find command. For example:

Code: Select all

find . -atime +30 -exec rm {} \;

Read the man pages for find to garner more information.

[Jay]

Thanks, Ray.

I googled and found out that i have to use the "find" command where we can specify the number of days.

Thanks
Jay

[Jay]

Hi Ray,

When i embed the find command in the ftp script, it complains Invalid command. FTP cannot recognize "find".

#Build and run the delete file script
echo ===================
echo About to delete files from $tdir
echo "open $server
user $user $pwd
cd $tdir
prompt off
find . -atime +0 -exec rm -f {} \;
quit "


Is there any other way to use the find command, apart from the FTP process ?

Thanks in advance
Jay

[ray.wurlod]

You didn't mention FTP in your original post! The solution I gave was one that also didn't assume being embedded in FTP script.

I would have to give it a great deal of thought. In the meantime, try an FTP stage, and run find as a "before" command. You may be able to get that to work.

[chulett]

Is there any other way to use the find command, apart from the FTP process ?

Of course. I'm curious why you feel the need to do this in an ftp session. Is this the only access you have to a remote system? Is it at least a UNIX system?

Perhaps if you explained your need in greater detail people could give you more targeted answers.

[Jay]

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies...sorry , i was not clear enough...

here is my scenario.

Datastage runs on Box1, Solaris 5.8
Archiving is to be done on Box2, AIX. There are folders here where we will be keeping our archived files.

My requirement is to delete older files depending on the interface.
For Interface 1, i need to keep 3 files (weekly process), 3 weeks data.
For Interface 2, i need to keep 14 files ( daily process), 2 weeks data.

Each archived file will have timestamp attached to it.

Please let me know in which direction i should proceed.

Meanwhile i will try what Ray suggested.

Thanks in advance
Jay

[ray.wurlod]

You could try the find command (with exec of rm) through remote shell. Your UNIX administrator will have a heart attack when you ask for authority to do this, but you merely need to convince her or him that your UNIX skills are sufficiently up to scratch!

It may be better to create such a shell script on the remote machine, so that only that command can be executed, and remotely execute the shell script.

[Jay]

Thanks, Ray.

We came up with a solution.

I wrote a shell script to delete files. We placed it on the remote server and called it via the scheduler.

Thanks all for your suggestions,
Jay