[vox-tech] Regular expression help

[Bill Kendrick]

On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 03:01:13PM -0700, David Spencer, Internet Handyman wrote:
> Guys, I'm sorry about asking this on the list; but I seem to have a mental
> block when it comes to regular expressions. Here's what I'm trying to do:

That's what this list is here for! ;)


> I have a lot of directories with a vast number of files, some of which I wishy
> to delete based on the month they were created. I've built a file from some
> full directory listings that has all the files I wish to delete. (Just go with
> me on this and don't suggest alternative methods of performing the task - I'm
> simplfying the job so it can be explained more easily.)

Another alternative might be to use "find" to find all files created
or modified within a certain timespan, and then delete them.
(Or simply list them, which you can capture into a file for review,
and delete the files at your leisure)

You could also use 'find' as a means of getting easier-to-parse output
(additional or fewer fields, and formatted differently) than what you
get from "ls -l".

e.g.:

  find -mmin +43200   # more modified more than 30 days (30*24*60 minutes) ago

  find -not -newermt '2010-04-01 00:00:00'  # files modified ('m') longer ago
                                            # ("not newer") than the date ('t')
                                            # April 1st


Of course, I've pretty much never had reason to use these, so I might be
off the mark with them, but I figured "find" is a lot more flexible and
safer than "ls -l" followed by regexp magic. ;)

-bill!