Delete Files Older Than A Certain Date

We’ll just use the find command to search for all the files older than a certain date, and then use the –exec command to delete them. You could use the –delete command instead, but you’ll end up with a maximum arguments when there are too many files.

Find Command Syntax

Note that there are spaces between rm, {}, and ;

Explanation for Command

The first argument is the path to the files. This can be a path, a directory, or a wildcard as in the example above. I would recommend using the full path, and make sure that you run the command without the exec rm to make sure you are getting the right results. The second argument, -mtime, is used to specify the number of days old that the file is. If you enter +5, it will find files older than 5 days. The third argument, -exec, allows you to pass in a command such as rm. The {} ; at the end is required to end the command.

This pretty much works on any ‘nix distribution.