Question: I would like to know if there is a single command in Linux that allows me to delete all files that are older than say 10 days? – Ravi
Solution: Yes, you can use ‘find‘ command with few arguments – such as to search all files or files with specific extensions (e.g., *.tar), calculate file modification time and a command to execute on each file.
For example, the below command will delete all files that are older than 10 days.
find * -mtime +10 -exec rm {} \;
Here,
find – the command utility to search files.
* – specifies all files. If you want to search for files with specific extension then the command goes like this…
find *.tar -mtime +10 -exec rm {} \;-mtime – File’s data was last modified n*24 hours ago.
+10 – means, files older than 10 days.
-exec – runs external command
rm – command to remove files
{} \; – terminates the command
Caution: Note the directory where the command is executed, as the files deleted cannot be recovered, until unless you use recovery software.
