# Better way to kill files?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/better-way-to-kill-files/117139>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 13, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/better-way-to-kill-files/117139 "2007-10-13T19:09:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![corywilkerson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/aca169/32.png) [@corywilkerson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/corywilkerson)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/better-way-to-kill-files/117139/1 "2007-10-13T19:09:40Z")

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Purpose here is to find all files \> 5 hours old in a directory and wipe  
them…

Of course I could just write a shell script but I wanted to leverage  
ruby…or, rather, needed to leverage ruby…not real familiar with the  
File and FileUtils API just yet…

dir\_path = “~/foo/bar”

Dir.new(dir\_path).each {|file|  
if file.include?(‘foobar’)  
afile = File.new("#{dir\_path}/#{file}")

```
if (Time.now - afile.mtime)/60/60 > 5
  File.delete("#{dir_path}/#{file}")
end

```

end  
}

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**Author:** ![corywilkerson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/aca169/32.png) [@corywilkerson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/corywilkerson)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/better-way-to-kill-files/117139/2 "2007-10-13T19:53:50Z")

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On 10/13/07, Cory W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Purpose here is to find all files \> 5 hours old in a directory and wipe  
> them…
> 
> Of course I could just write a shell script but I wanted to leverage  
> ruby…or, rather, needed to leverage ruby…

Not to discourage you from doing it in ruby, but you don’t need to  
write a shell script:

$man find

$find ~/foo/bar -mmin 300 -delete

–  
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby  
[http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/](http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/)

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**Author:** ![corywilkerson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/aca169/32.png) [@corywilkerson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/corywilkerson)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/better-way-to-kill-files/117139/3 "2007-10-13T20:10:48Z")

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On Oct 13, 1:53 pm, “Rick DeNatale” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> $man find
> 
> $find ~/foo/bar -mmin 300 -delete

ruby -e ‘`find ~/foo/bar -mmin 300 -delete`’

In case the boss says it has to be Ruby 🙂

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**Author:** ![corywilkerson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/aca169/32.png) [@corywilkerson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/corywilkerson)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/better-way-to-kill-files/117139/4 "2007-10-13T20:43:00Z")

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On Oct 13, 2007, at 1:10 PM, Brian A. wrote:

> > Not to discourage you from doing it in ruby, but you don’t need to

Of course you might want to generate a log of what got deleted.  
Or perhaps just to stdout…  
Then again, you might even want to do that and move them to a temp  
dir for later deletion if they’re not important.  
Definitely want a log of anything that fit the requirements but was  
unable to delete!