ForFiles not working for recursive folder with dynamic folder name

Question

I wanna use forfiles to delete files older than 92 days, but the code seems to be breaking. I have a dynamic folder name.

for /d %X in (e:\local\test\backups\s?????pbx\) do forfiles /p %X /m *.cab /c "cmd /c del @path" /d -92

I couldn't figure out where I am going wrong. Is there any other way to achieve this? Any help would be appreciated.

@ths What, why isn't `?` a wildcard in batch? Because the people at Microsoft decided to make `*` the wildcard. You'd have to ask them for more details. — SomethingDark, Dec 16 '14 at 23:29
that's just not true. a ? is a wildcard for a single character. — ths, Dec 16 '14 at 23:36
Well look at that; so it is. Still, you can't guarantee that the folder will have five characters that can be wildcards, so using `*` is still better. — SomethingDark, Dec 16 '14 at 23:38

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 17 '14 at 01:39

Windows commands only support wildcards in the terminal node of a path - It will not find paths that appear anywhere before the last \.

The solution for your problem is really simple :-) Just remove the final \

for /d %X in (e:\local\test\backups\s?????pbx) do forfiles /p %X /m *.cab /c "cmd /c del @path" /d -92

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 16 '14 at 22:43

0

Batch uses * as a wildcard character. Try this:

for /d %X in (e:\local\test\backups\s*pbx\) do forfiles /p %X /m *.cab /c "cmd /c del @path" /d -92

answered Dec 16 '14 at 22:43

SomethingDark

I can see what's supposed to be happening, but what is actually happening? – SomethingDark Dec 16 '14 at 22:58
It was suppose to delete the files older than 92 days from directory e:\local\test\backups having subfolders "s*pbx". But I dont even see the echo command working instead of the delete command – Hashmukh Dec 16 '14 at 23:01
Just to be sure, you're running this on the command line instead of via a batch script, right? Because if this is inside a script, you need to use `%%X` instead of `%X`. – SomethingDark Dec 16 '14 at 23:05
try running `for /D %X in (E:\local\test\backups\s*pbx\) do echo %X` and see if anything comes up. There may be an issue with the outer `for` loop. – SomethingDark Dec 16 '14 at 23:36

2 Answers2