Get a sorted list of folders based on modification date

Question

I am trying to figure out how to apply a Python function to the oldest 50% of the sub-folders inside my parent directory.

For instance, if I have 12 folders inside a directory called foo, I'd like to sort them by modification date and then remove the oldest 6. How should I approach this?

What on earth does *"which are the oldest (not of the oldest)"* mean? — jonrsharpe, May 19 '14 at 13:18
@jonrsharpe I meant to say that out of the say, 12 files, I want to do something with the 6 of them which have the oldest modification date and not on the 50% of those 6. — stratis, May 19 '14 at 13:21
Ah, I see - I have altered the wording to (I hope!) make this clearer — jonrsharpe, May 19 '14 at 13:22

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered May 19 '14 at 13:29

7

Something like this?

import os
dirpath='/path/to/run/'
dirs = [s for s in os.listdir(dirpath) if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(dirpath, s))]
dirs.sort(key=lambda s: os.path.getmtime(os.path.join(dirpath, s)), reverse=True)

for dir_idx in range(0,len(dirs)/2):
    do_something(dirs[dir_idx])

answered May 19 '14 at 13:29

woot

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Exactly this! Thank you. – stratis May 19 '14 at 14:18

Get a sorted list of folders based on modification date

1 Answers1