Delete files in a directory older than 7 days, but always leave at least 20...

vegan_vicky

Beginner here: I want to sync pictures to a folder but want them to be recent. That's why I want them to be deleted if they are older then 7 days. Current code for it: find ./recentpicturesdirectory -mtime -7 -type f -delete Now I need an exception because there should always be a minimum of 20 pictures in the folder. I did some research but can't figure it out. Maybe use something else then the find command? First sad try (told you I'm a...

Originally asked by Dominik Meyer on Stack Exchange (askubuntu) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

Here is a simple script to do this: #!/bin/bash IMGSPATH="/path/to/somewhere" # count of all files within your directory count=$(find $IMGSPATH -type f | wc -l) # remove the ones older than of 7 days while [ "$count" -gt "20" ] do find $IMGSPATH -type f -mtime +7 -print -delete -quit count=$((--count)) done First we count all files within your desired directory. While the number of files within that directory is greater than of "20", then do: Find the first file older than of "7" days. Remove it Decrease the count of available files Do "#2" again ... To test it: mkdir /tmp/lab cd /lab touch {1..40} touch -d "10 days ago" {1..20} Save the script and run it for /tmp/lab now files 1 to 20...

Full answer by Ravexina: https://askubuntu.stackexchange.com/a/933009 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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