How to Find and Remove Old or Inactive Files
- Become an administrator.
- Find files that have not been accessed for a specified number of days and list them in a file.
# find directory -type f[-atime +nnn] [-mtime +nnn] -print > filename &- directory
- Identifies the directory you want to search. Directories below this directory are also searched.
- -atime +nnn
- Finds files that have not been accessed within the number of days (nnn) that you specify.
- -mtime +nnn
- Finds files that have not been modified within the number of days (nnn) that you specify.
- filename
- Identifies the file that contains the list of inactive files.
- Remove the inactive files found listed in the previous step.
# rm `cat filename`where filename identifies the file that was created in the previous step. This file contains the list of inactive files.
Example Finding and Removing Old or Inactive Files
The following example shows files in the /var/adm directory and the subdirectories that have not been accessed in the last 60 days. The /var/tmp/deadfiles file contains the list of inactive files. The rm command removes these inactive files.
# find /var/adm -type f -atime +60 -print > /var/tmp/deadfiles &
# more /var/tmp/deadfiles
/var/adm/aculog
/var/adm/spellhist
/var/adm/wtmpx
/var/adm/sa/sa13
/var/adm/sa/sa27
/var/adm/sa/sa11
/var/adm/sa/sa23
/var/adm/sulog
/var/adm/vold.log
/var/adm/messages.1
/var/adm/messages.2
/var/adm/messages.3
# rm `cat /var/tmp/deadfiles`
#
Another ways to remove
find /path/to/files -mtime +60 -print
Then the version with -exec rm -v {} \; to remove the files (when you are ready).