deleting old files using crontab

Question

I use the following crontab record in order to daily backup my DB:

0 2 * * * MYSQL_PWD=password mysqldump -u user db_name > $HOME/db_backups/db_name-$(date +\%Y-\%m-\%d-\%H-\%M).sql 2>> $HOME/db_backups/cron.log

I want to add another crontab record that will delete the DB dumps that are older then one month.

Any thoughts?

While logrotate can delete files of a certain age, it only operates on files that it rotates; not a typical scenario for a db backup. Of course you can add the `find ... -exec rm {} \;` command (documented in other answers) as a script within the logrotate configuration. This may be useful in some cases; [example in last entry of a conversation thread on another forum](http://www.directadmin.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-3654.html) — Tom Harrison, Oct 11 '12 at 16:20

score 27 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '11 at 08:48

27

find /db_backups/ -mtime +30 -delete

This command would delete DB backups older than 30 days.

answered Mar 21 '11 at 08:48

Shamit Verma

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 21 '11 at 08:48

22

Just create another cron:

0 3 * * * find $HOME/db_backups -name "db_name*.sql" -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \; >> $HOME/db_backups/purge.log 2>&1

It will find all backups older than 30 days and delete them.

answered Mar 21 '11 at 08:48

dogbane

Can we write the filenames that will be deleted to a file for reference. – Srujan Kumar Gulla Dec 05 '13 at 16:14
Sure, you can either use `rm -v` or `find -print` to output the names of the files that are being deleted. – dogbane Dec 06 '13 at 08:58

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 21 '11 at 08:55

3

There is a tool called tmpreaper that securely deletes files matching certain criteria, such as an access or modification date n days in the past.

answered Mar 21 '11 at 08:55

Simon Richter

3 Answers3