[TriLUG] Some script help

[Aaron Morrison via TriLUG]

Bash is fine for this, but the key is to not try to compare dates. Bash doesn't do that well at all. 

My suggestion is to let "find" do the purge work for you and then copy/sync what's left. 

find /dir/path -type f -name 'backup*' -time +7 -delete

That will delete all files in /dir/path starting with "backup" that is older than 7 days. 

Simple is better (and easier to maintain). 

--am


> On May 8, 2015, at 11:07, Igor Partola via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org> wrote:
> 
> +1 for not doing this in bash. While it's of course possible, Python would
> be my choice. There you can compare dates as dates, not as sorted strings.
> 
> Another approach: use logrotate to do this. I have seen this used
> successfully to take backups from MySQL and keeping X number of days' worth
> of backups.
> 
> Third approach: forget copying "today's file" and copy the latest file. Use
> `ls backup_*.tgz | sort | tail -n 1` to get the latest file.
> 
> Fourth approach: use rsync and copy everything. Combine with third approach
> to first delete the local backups that are older than 7 days.
> 
> Igor
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