Linux find and delete files but redirect file names to be deleted

user_1910558 0
Viewed 15905

Is there a way to write the file names to a file before they are deleted for reference later to check what has been deleted. 

find <PATH> -type f -name "<filePattern>" -mtime +1 -delete
delete-file find command linux
5 Answers

Just add a -print expression to the invocation of find:

find <PATH> -type f -name "<filePattern>" -mtime +1 -delete -print > log

I'm not sure if this prints the name before or after the file is unlinked, but it should not matter. I suspect -delete -print unlinks before it prints, while -print -delete will print before it unlinks.

user_1407500

You can use -exec and rm -v:

find <PATH> -type f -name "<filePattern>" -mtime +1 -exec rm -v {} \;

rm -v will report what it is deleting.

user_1713180

With something like this you can execute multiple commands in the exec statement, like log to file, rm file, and whatever more you should need

find <PATH> -type f -name "<filePattern>" -mtime +1 -exec sh -c "echo {} >>mylog; rm -f {}" \;
user_21967280

From a shell script named removelogs.sh run the command sh removelogs.sh in terminal

this is the text in removelogs.sh file.

cd /var/log;
date >> /var/log/removedlogs.txt;
find . -maxdepth 4 -type f -name \*log.old -delete -print >> /var/log/removedlogs.txt
  • . - to run at this location !!! so ensure you do not run this in root folder!!!
  • -maxdepth - to prevent it getting out of control
  • -type - to ensure just files
  • -name - to ensure just your filtered names
  • -print - to send the result to stdout
  • -delete - to delete said files
  • >> - appends to files not overwrites > creates new file

works for me on CENTOS7

user_70127490
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