Linux File Cleanup Commands

Remove Files Older Than 24 Hours

Here are various commands to remove files older than 24 hours:

1. Using find command with -mtime:

find /path/to/directory -mtime +1 -type f -delete

2. Using find with -exec rm:

find /path/to/directory -mtime +1 -type f -exec rm {} \;

3. Using find with -ctime (based on change time):

find /path/to/directory -ctime +1 -type f -delete

4. Using -mmin for more precise control (1440 minutes = 24 hours):

find /path/to/directory -mmin +1440 -type f -delete

Explanation of parameters:

• /path/to/directory: Replace with your target directory path
• -mtime +1: Files modified more than 1 day ago
• -ctime +1: Files changed more than 1 day ago
• -mmin +1440: Files modified more than 1440 minutes ago
• -type f: Only match files (not directories)
• -delete: Delete the matched files

Safety tip:

Before deleting, you can remove the -delete option to see which files would be deleted:

find /path/to/directory -mtime +1 -type f

Count Total Files

Various methods to count files from a find command:

1. Using wc -l:

find /path/to/directory -mtime +1 -type f | wc -l

2. Using find with -printf and wc:

find /path/to/directory -mtime +1 -type f -printf '.' | wc -c

3. Using a counter variable in combination with find:

count=$(find /path/to/directory -mtime +1 -type f | wc -l)
echo "Total files: $count"

4. Using -exec with a counter:

find /path/to/directory -mtime +1 -type f -exec echo \; | wc -l

Note:

The most common and simplest approach is using wc -l. Here:

• wc -l counts the number of lines in the output
• Each line represents one file found by the find command