one can also use '-maxdepth' option of 'find' command to limit the depth of search for example, to search only in /path and not in /path/childir, then find ./ -name "file-name-pattern" -maxdepth 1 otherwise it will search all dirs present in /path <div>On 3/9/07, Matthew Flaschen <<a href="mailto:matthew.flaschen@gatech.edu">matthew.flaschen@gatech.edu</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Carsten Aulbert wrote: > Gabriel Dragffy wrote: > >> Could some one provide me with a sample script that I could run as a >> cron job and it would go through the streamripper folder deleting files >> older than 1 week (for example). Many thanks. > >> gabe > > > Again, use with care ;) > > find /path -name "stream*.mp3" -mtime +6 | xargs -i rm -f {} > > That should delete all files named "stream*.mp3" found in the directory > hierarchie /path with modification date older than 6 days. > > For mor info, please read the man page of find, xargs and rm and try the > stuff first with 'echo' instead of rm to make sure you don't delete > anything you don't want to delete. Why do you use xargs? find is designed to do the same thing with just -delete: find -name "stream*.mp3" -mtime +6 -delete In general, you could just do: find -name "stream*.mp3" -mtime +6 -execdir rm '{}' '+' Also, the '+' means it uses the same command line for multiple files, which is more efficient. For testing: find -name "stream*.mp3" -mtime +6 -print No need to read two man pages. :) Matt Flaschen -- ubuntu-users mailing list <a href="mailto:ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com"> ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users</a> </blockquote></div> -- Sagittarius "Darkness of this UNIVERSE has many secrets."