Deleting files older then 7 days

[alexsqlforums]

hi all

I've got a shell script which suppose to delete files older then 7 days.

Unfortunatly it doesn't work.

here is the script:
#---------------------------------------
# Configration Variables
#
HOSTNAME=`hostname`
BACKUP_DIR=/mysql/backup
BACKUP_DAYS=7



find $BACKUP_DIR -name ${HOSTNAME}* -mtime +${BACKUP_DAYS} -print -exec rm -f {} \;


I run it as root.
Can anyone tell me why it doesn't work.

Thanks
Any help appreciated

[Cabhan]

Well, what exactly doesn't work about it?

If you run it by hand, does it work? Are you sure that there are files older than 7 days in the directory? Also, consider using "-delete" instead of the "-exec" you have.

One thing to consider would be surrounding the * in single quotes. The way you have it now, the pattern expansion is being performed by the shell. From the find man page:

NON-BUGS
       $ find . -name *.c -print
       find: paths must precede expression
       Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [path...] [expression]

       This  happens  because  *.c has been expanded by the shell resulting in
       find actually receiving a command line like this:

       find . -name bigram.c code.c frcode.c locate.c -print

       That command is of course not going to work.  Instead of  doing  things
       this  way, you should enclose the pattern in quotes or escape the wild-
       card:
       $ find . -name \*.c -print

[Valery Reznic]

hi all

I've got a shell script which suppose to delete files older then 7 days.

Unfortunatly it doesn't work.

here is the script:
#---------------------------------------
# Configration Variables
#
HOSTNAME=`hostname`
BACKUP_DIR=/mysql/backup
BACKUP_DAYS=7



find $BACKUP_DIR -name ${HOSTNAME}* -mtime +${BACKUP_DAYS} -print -exec rm -f {} \;


I run it as root.
Can anyone tell me why it doesn't work.

Thanks
Any help appreciated

You should escape {} wit bachslashes like here.
And as previous poster said you gave add '' around ${HOSTNAME}*
find $BACKUP_DIR -name "${HOSTNAME}*" -mtime +${BACKUP_DAYS} -print -exec rm -f \{\} \;

[alexsqlforums]

THE SCRIPT DOES WORK

I had files from nov 6th and on and thought the script would delete them on the 13th or 14th. since they are more than 7 days.

It did delete them this morning.
But the weird thing is it deleted nov 6th and nov 7th files.

I'm still new to linux and learning as I go along.

Valery and Cabhan thank you for your responses.

[scm]

You should escape {} wit bachslashes like here.

Can you explain why, please? The shell doesn't put any significance to braces except when used in variable expansion, surely? I've tried ksh, bash and <spit>csh</spit> and they all work fine without being escaped.

[vsemaska]

You don't have to escape the {}. Your -name field would have to have the * escaped if you didn't enclose it with "s.

"${HOSTNAME}*"
or
${HOSTNAME}\*

Vic