[opensuse] How to delete everything but the newest 5 files?
Hi, I'd like to let cron clean up a directory that holds hourly backups. So there are 24 new files every day. I'd need some scripting that sorts the content of this directory and then removes everything but the 5 newest files. Is there a howto or even sample code that does this? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 03/31/2012 09:06 PM, Andreas wrote:
Hi,
I'd like to let cron clean up a directory that holds hourly backups. So there are 24 new files every day.
I'd need some scripting that sorts the content of this directory and then removes everything but the 5 newest files.
Is there a howto or even sample code that does this? If your directory contains only files, something like this should work:
rm `ls -St | tail +6` ls -St sorts the directory contents by time and tail +6 prints the file starting from 6th line Regards, -- Mark -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Saturday 31 March 2012 20:06:30 Andreas wrote:
Hi,
I'd like to let cron clean up a directory that holds hourly backups. So there are 24 new files every day.
I'd need some scripting that sorts the content of this directory and then removes everything but the 5 newest files.
Is there a howto or even sample code that does this?
logrotate already does pretty much just that. As the name suggests, it is intended for log files, but there is nothing to say it couldn't be used for other types of files as well. If you're careful with the config file, it can be used for pretty much any situation where you have a regular input of files and you only want to keep the last few of them Anders -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 3/31/2012 2:06 PM, Andreas wrote:
Hi,
I'd like to let cron clean up a directory that holds hourly backups. So there are 24 new files every day.
I'd need some scripting that sorts the content of this directory and then removes everything but the 5 newest files.
Is there a howto or even sample code that does this?
find /backups -mmin +300 -delete (find everything in or under /backups whose modify time is older than 300 minutes and delete it) -- bkw -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 3/31/2012 5:03 PM, Brian K. White wrote:
On 3/31/2012 2:06 PM, Andreas wrote:
Hi,
I'd like to let cron clean up a directory that holds hourly backups. So there are 24 new files every day.
I'd need some scripting that sorts the content of this directory and then removes everything but the 5 newest files.
Is there a howto or even sample code that does this?
find /backups -mmin +300 -delete
(find everything in or under /backups whose modify time is older than 300 minutes and delete it)
Ouch. Run tat tomorrow and Poof! All gone. -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 3/31/2012 9:51 PM, John Andersen wrote:
On 3/31/2012 5:03 PM, Brian K. White wrote:
On 3/31/2012 2:06 PM, Andreas wrote:
Hi,
I'd like to let cron clean up a directory that holds hourly backups. So there are 24 new files every day.
I'd need some scripting that sorts the content of this directory and then removes everything but the 5 newest files.
Is there a howto or even sample code that does this?
find /backups -mmin +300 -delete
(find everything in or under /backups whose modify time is older than 300 minutes and delete it)
Ouch. Run tat tomorrow and Poof! All gone.
Wrong. He's creating new files every hour so there will always be 5 new files. But you are right it does depend on the cron job that's creating a new file every hour to keep working. But that's why this shouldn't be it's own separate cron job but should be a command added to the end of the backup job that creates the files, and make it conditional on the success of the create-file part. If the backup script isn't run, then neither would the find/delete part of it. If the backup script ran but the create-file part failed, then don't run the find/delete part. The ls -T based approach would be safer in that it would keep the 5 newest files regardless how old they happen to be. -- bkw -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
participants (5)
-
Anders Johansson -
Andreas -
Brian K. White -
John Andersen -
Mark Goldstein