With the operating systems available today, using the graphical user interface (GUI) of the operating system has become second-nature for me. It is very easy to copy, move, and delete files through the GUI interface than typing out the commands from a command line.
With all the interface options in an operating system, there are many times where it can be more efficient to use the command line. In one such case, I wanted to create a simple method of deleting files that were older than seven days from a specified directory. While I could have written an application to do this, I wanted to make it more simple by using a batch file. With an additional executable available with the Windows 2003 SDK, I can easily accomplish my goal.
Deleting Files From DOS Older Than Seven Days
There is a small executable called ForeFiles that can easily allow you to get the files in a directory that meet certain time criteria. In my case I want to find all files that were older than 7 days.
To do this, I added the following command to a batch file:
The above line executes the forefiles.exe program with the following parameters:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| /p | This parameter specifies the path that contain the files I wish to delete. |
| /s | This parameter tells the program to recurse into any subfolders to look for additional files. |
| /m | If you want to specify a specific file type, this parameter will allow you to limit the search to specific files, such as *.doc for Word documents. In my case, I looked for all files (*.*). |
| /d | This one is the key parameter – it specifies the last modified date value. In my example I specify “-7″ which indicates that the files need to have a modified date 7 days less than the current date. |
| /c | This is the command that I execute on the files found by the program. The delete command is executed in a command window for each file. |
While there are many ways to perform such an action through other applications, some times I find using batch files, and then scheduling them to run, can be just as easy.
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on February 18, 2011 at 8:49 am
Thanks for the tips. I think I can utilize it into script (crontab job) to do it automatically.
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on February 22, 2011 at 10:07 am
I haven’t used DOS in years. I’ve become so used to the GUI that I just sort the files into date order and do it that way.
on February 22, 2011 at 12:03 pm
I have also become used to the GUI, but I tend to do a few things from DOS since I can type quicker than I can click.
on February 24, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Forfiles is a great command. I have only known it for 6 month or so. I had a folder with so many log files that it took minutes to open it in explore. Then I made a script with forfiles.exe that deleted all files older than 30 days. I configured it to run every night as a scheduled job. Now I don’t need to think about those log files. It is all running automatic. You can’t do that with a GUI
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on February 24, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Running automatically is where small files like forefiles can excel. While GUI may be great for manual deletion, sometimes you just need to run a scheduled job once a day to automatically do the cleanup for you.
on February 27, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Nice I can use this to clean out old IE cookies from our citrix profiles.
thanks!
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on July 9, 2011 at 3:02 am
Thanks a ton… !!! I have been finding this.. and got everything except this great code..
on August 9, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Hi, Thanks for the command.
BUT, when I use it I get the message that it cannot find the file, yet it lists the actual file it tells me it cannot find.
I’m sure it’s a simple problem, I would appreciate any feedback.
Forfiles /p C:\Work\Stuff\Temp /m *.log /d -30 /C “cmd /c del @file”
Could Not Find C:\Work\Stuff\Temp\ex110701.log
on September 20, 2011 at 4:13 am
Wow.. I never knew about this. Thanks for sharing this. Awesome!
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on October 5, 2011 at 4:09 am
Is forfiles a safe exe?
regards
on October 5, 2011 at 6:00 am
The forefiles executable is safe and is provided by Microsoft with the Windows Resource Kit.
on November 16, 2011 at 10:33 pm
I never knew this before I only knew it from you, this is such a brilliant idea ever. I use to delete my files in a simple way. I never thought about this one.
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on November 17, 2011 at 8:03 am
Thanks for visiting, Jacob.
on December 7, 2011 at 1:36 pm
It’s working perfect! It deletes the files from sub folders also.
Thanks for the posting.
on December 8, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Hi, this does not work for me , mine says this:
C:\temp>forfiles.exe /p C:\Temp /s /m *.* /d -7 /c “cmd /c del @file
FORFILES v 1.1 – by Emmanuel Boersma – 4/98
Syntax : FORFILES [-pPath] [-mSearch Mask] [-ccommand] [-dDDMMYY] [-s]
-pPath Path where to start searching
-mSearch Mask Search files according to
-cCommand Command to execute on each file(s)
-d[+|-][DDMMYY|DD] Select files with date >= or = or <= (current date – DD days)
-s Recurse directories
-v Verbose mode
The following variables can be used in Command :
@FILE, @PATH, @RELPATH, @ISDIR, @FSIZE, @FDATE, @FTIME
Default :
Examples :
FORFILES -pc:\ -s -m*.BAT -c”CMD /C Echo @FILE is a batch file”
FORFILES -pc:\ -s -m*.* -c”CMD /C if @ISDIR==TRUE echo @FILE is a directory”
FORFILES -pc:\ -s -m*.* -d-100 -c”CMD /C Echo @FILE : date >= 100 days”
FORFILES -pc:\ -s -m*.* -d-010193 -c”CMD /C Echo @FILE is quite old!”
C:\temp>
I have been batt,ing for three days now and nobody has managed to help me, maybe here i find somebody that knows whats going on.
im sure my version of FORFILES.exe is a problem.
on December 8, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Have you downloaded the forefiles.exe from the link in this post? That is the same one I used to execute the command.