CRON Job to delete files (not folders) with specific extensions within a folder and subfolders

timarion

11/17/23, 7:35 PM

I need a cron job that will delete all files with these extensions (.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .pdf) in a folder (including files in subfolders, but not the subfolders themselves) twice a day. I'm using Dreamhost which allows you to customize the frequency within their UI, so I believe I just need the command.

Because the files can take a minute or two to get processed upon upload for extra safety it would be nice if the job only deleted files that were at least 5 minutes old, but that is optional.

Thank you so much for your help - I'm new to cron jobs!

596

1 + 0

cron

dreamhost

Score:0

Server

Tomek

11/17/23, 7:53 PM

find <path> \( -name \*.jpg -o -name \*.jpeg -o -name \*.png -o -name \*.pdf \) -type f -mmin +5 -delete

For the explanation: man find.

+ 8

timarion

11/17/23, 7:57 PM

So for the path, would I use an absolute path like this? find /home/server_name/example.com/wp-content/uploads/forms \( -name \*.jpg -o -name \*.jpeg -o -name \*.png -o -name \*.pdf \) -type f -mmin +5 -delete

Tomek

11/17/23, 8:00 PM

Yes. Consider testing this first, just drop `-delete` and examine the output. Please note backslashes are needed there (to escape shell metacharacters: `(`, `)` and `*`).

timarion

11/17/23, 10:48 PM

Ok, so it finds all the relevant files in the path that I specify, but not files in subfolders - any way to get those found as well?

timarion

11/17/23, 11:21 PM

Ok, added an "*" at the end of the directory path, and it picked up the files in subdirectories.

Tomek

11/18/23, 1:11 PM

That's a bit unexpected. Are you sure it is descending in all subdirectories? If not - try to drop `-type f` part from the command.

timarion

11/18/23, 4:16 PM

Is this not expected? If there's a file in this directory: /home/server_name/example.com/wp-content/uploads/forms/test/test.png THEN /home/server_name/example.com/wp-content/uploads/forms/* will find it with the conditions we set above? However: /home/server_name/example.com/wp-content/uploads/forms/ will not.

Tomek

11/18/23, 5:05 PM

`-type f` means files only. I guess this is why it dropped the first level subdirectories but I am not 100% sure. For me it is a bit unexpected but honestly I didn't test it and and didn't think a lot about it - so I may have missed something. If it works - use it, if it doesn't - dig into manual and improve it.

timarion

11/18/23, 5:21 PM

Hmmm, I thought -f meant making it a foreground process. Anyways, thank you very much for all your help. I believe I have a workable solution now!

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EN: CRON Job to delete files (not folders) with specific extensions within a folder and subfolders

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