dirclean - Clean directories based on time and type criteria
/usr/sbin/dirclean [-a|c|m|t [+|-]days]... [-k types] [-n]
[-o] [-v] [-D] dirlist
/usr/sbin/dirclean -H
Sets the threshold for file removal in terms of the file's
atime (access time). Files are removed only if they were
accessed more than (+), less than (-), or exactly the
specified number of whole days ago.
It is important to remember that the utility's
threshold for file removal is specified in terms of
whole days whereas a file's atime value is a timestamp
that includes hours and minutes (a partial
day). The utility truncates the file's atime timestamp
to whole days. Therefore, +1 means that files
that were last accessed at least 48 hours before
dirclean processing will be removed. Specifying -1
means that files accessed less than 24 hours before
dirclean processing will be removed, and 1 means
files that were last accessed at least 24 hours ago
but less than 48 hours ago will be removed. Sets
the threshold for file removal in terms of the
file's ctime (inode change time). Files are removed
only if they have an inode change time that is more
than (+), less than (-), or exactly the specified
number of whole days.
See the description of the -a option for information
about how truncation of timestamp values
affects specification of the option argument.
Specifies which types of filesystem objects to
keep. The types string can be zero or more letters
from the following list (chosen to match the -type
option of the find command): Keeps block-special
files. Keeps character-special files. Keeps
directories. Keeps plain (regular) files. Keeps
symbolic links. Keeps named pipes ('fifos').
Keeps UNIX-domain sockets.
Alternatively, you can use -k '' to specify that
none of the above are to be kept; in other words,
-k '' specifies that all files of the preceding
types should be removed.
If the -k option is omitted from the command line,
the default is -k s (keep UNIX-domain sockets).
In all cases, dirclean removes directories only if
they are empty. Sets the threshold for file
removal in terms of the file's mtime (modification
time). Files are removed only if they were last
modified more than (+), less than (-), or exactly
the specified number of whole days ago.
See the description of the -a option for information
about how truncation of timestamp values
affects specification of the option argument. Noremoval
mode. Tells which files would be deleted by
the command without actually deleting them. Specifying
-n implicitly specifies -v (verbose mode).
Skips (does not remove) files that are open or otherwise
in use by other processes. Simultaneously
applies the [+|-]days argument to each of the
atime, ctime, and mtime options. The -t option is a
shorthand way of specifying the -a, -c, and -m
options with identical arguments. Verbose mode;
lists all files removed. Debug mode; lists why any
target entries are not removed. Gives an extended
usage summary to standard output and exits successfully.
Specifies one or more pathnames (in a space-separated
list) of starting directories from which to recursively
remove files. Pathnames may be absolute or relative.
The dirclean utility recursively removes files that meet
the constraints supplied by the option list. The utility
is typically used to clean out old files from directories,
such as /tmp, that are used as holding space for temporary
files. The operation of this utility is similar to that of
the find and rm command combinations that are generally
used to remove stale file entries; however, dirclean
removes files more quickly and in a more secure manner
than is possible with multi-process solutions.
For each starting directory (as supplied by dirlist), the
dirclean utility recursively unlinks subordinate files
that meet the constraints given by the options, which may
appear in any order; however, the utility does not traverse
any subdirectories that lead into a different file
system.
You can specify both minimum and maximum age thresholds in
terms of a file's atime, ctime, and mtime values. This
requires entering two instances of the options that specify
these thresholds to set the range. However, an error
results if you specify more than one maximum and one minimum
timestamp for any of the atime, ctime, or mtime settings.
An error also results if the specified minimum
exceeds the specified maximum. (The combination of -a -1
and -a +1 is an example of this error condition.)
If the command line does not contain any -a, -c, -m, or -t
options, target files are removed regardless of when they
were created, modified, or last accessed.
The dirclean utility is less flexible than the find and rm
combinations which it is intended to replace. Specifically,
there is no way to give dirclean a file exclusion
list.
Successfully traversed all the starting directories supplied
by dirlist. At least one removal operation failed
during directory traversal. At least one pathname in
dirlist was not a directory. A system call invoked by the
utility failed unexpectedly. Incorrect arguments or
another usage error was encountered.
The following diagnostics may be printed to standard error
during the normal course of utility operation. The message
text shown in this reference page includes printf() substitution
directives, such as %c, which are replaced with
real values as explained in the message description. However,
a message shown with a trailing %m ends with the
standard strerror() text for a failure condition returned
by an underlying system call. The diagnostic descriptions
do not discuss the system call failure messages that
replace %m. See intro(2) for information about errors
returned by system calls. Usage: dirclean [-{acmt}
[+-]days] [-k types] [-o] [-v] [-D] dirlist
An unrecognized option was encountered, or the
dirlist argument was omitted. dirclean: Invalid
timestamp value for '-%c' option: %s
The argument for one of the timestamp options (-a,
-c, -m, or -t) was not syntactically valid. The
argument was not a string of digits with an
optional leading plus (+) or minus (-) . The '-%c'
directive is replaced with the option being parsed,
and the %s directive is replaced with the invalid
argument. dirclean: Out-of-range timestamp value
for '-%c' option: %s
The argument (%s) for the -a, -c, -m, or -t option
(-%c) maps to a timestamp that is not supported in
standard UNIX internal time representation format.
Typically, this error occurs when the timestamp
specifies a date and time before 1 January 1970.
dirclean: Timestamp value for '-%c' option conflicts
with earlier values: %s
The argument (%s) to the -a, -c, -m, or -t option
(%c) represents a second attempt to set a removal
threshold in terms of a file's atime, ctime, or
mtime value. dirclean: Timestamp constraints for
'-%c' option impossible to satisfy: %s
One of the timestamp options (%c) was specified
twice, with both a +days argument and a -days
value, and the minimum value for the corresponding
timestamp exceeds the maximum allowed value. The
second instance of the argument that causes this
condition replaces %s. dirclean: Bad argument to
-k option: valid types are "bcdflps"
The -k option included an invalid letter in the
types value. (Try 'dirclean -H' for help.)
This message is appended to any of the preceding
messages (all of which note invalid command-line
arguments) to remind the user that the dirclean -H
command displays usage information. dirclean: Cannot
open current directory: %m
For proper operation, the dirclean utility needs to
open its original directory ("."). This operation
failed. dirclean: Internal error: Invalid return
(%d) from traversing directory: %s
This message should never occur, as it indicates an
internal logic error in the utility. Please report
any occurrence of this message, along with a way to
reproduce the problem, to your support representative
or submit a Software Problem Report (SPR) that
contains this information. dirclean: lstat failure
for starting directory: %s: %m
One of the starting directories (%s) specified in
dirlist does not exist or is not accessible.
dirclean: Starting directory argument is not a
directory: %s
One of the starting directories (%s) included in
dirlist is not a directory. dirclean: Cannot
fchdir() back to original directory after processing
"%s" argument: %m
After recursively processing a starting directory
(%s) in dirlist, an error occurred when the utility
attempted to change directory back to its original
location. (The utility changes directory back to
its original location after processing each operand
to ensure correct location should a subsequent
operand be specified as a relative path).
dirclean: Cannot allocate space to process directory:
%s: %m
An error occurred when the utility made a system
call to allocate space for holding a constructed
pathname (%s). This error indicates that process
data size limits or system paging space are unusually
low. dirclean: Cannot open directory: %s: %m
The indicated directory (%s) could not be opened in
order to traverse its entries. dirclean: Directory
moved during processing (skipped): %s
The indicated directory (%s) changed between the
time the utility parsed and saved the pathname
operand and the time the utility attempted to open
that directory for processing. This error does not
occur if a directory was updated in a normal manner;
the error means that the directory being
opened was not the same directory as specified by
the saved pathname. The volatility of the directory
indicates that processing it might not be
safe; therefore, the utility skipped over it to
process the next operand, if any. dirclean: Cannot
fchdir() to process directory: %s: %m
The utility could not change location to the indicated
directory (%s) to start processing after the
directory was successfully opened. (This error
usually means that the directory's permissions
allow reading but not searching.) dirclean: Cannot
lstat() directory entry: %s: %m
An attempt to verify the file type of a pathname
operand (%s) failed. dirclean: Cannot fchdir()
back to directory "%s" after processing sub-directory
entry: %s: %m
An attempt to return to a previous directory level
failed. The first %s indicates the parent directory
for which the fchdir() system call failed, and the
second %s indicates the subdirectory that the utility
had just finished processing. dirclean:
Removed directory %s
An empty directory was successfully removed. This
message appears only if the -v option is specified.
dirclean: Cannot unlink %s: %m
An attempt to remove the specified pathname (%s)
failed. dirclean: Unlinked %s
The indicated pathname was successfully removed.
This message appears only if the -v option is specified.
dirclean: Cannot rmdir %s: %m
An attempt to remove a directory (%s) failed for
some reason other than condition that the directory
was not empty. dirclean: Failed in fuser() check
of %s: %m
The -o option was specified and when the utility
was checking to see if the indicated file (%s) was
in use, an unexpected error was encountered.
dirclean: utimes() failure for directory %s: %m
When trying to restore the timestamps for the specified
directory (%s), an unexpected error was
encountered.
The dirclean utility may issue the following additional
diagnostics when the -D (debug) option is in effect:
Skipped entry: %s\n\tReason: %s
This is the top-level debug message. The indicated
file (the first %s) is not being removed for the
reason given by the trailing %s. That reason will
be one of the following: Rejected by time-stamp
constraints
One of the timestamp options (-a, -c, -m, or -t)
was specified, and the corresponding timestamps on
the indicated file were rejected by those constraints.
This type of file is to be preserved
Either the indicated file is a UNIX-domain socket
and -k option was not specified, or the file is one
that an explicit -k option marked for preservation.
Directory is the start of a different file system
Descending into the indicated directory would
require crossing filesystem boundaries. Doing so is
not supported by this utility. Directory is not
empty
An attempt to remove a directory failed because the
directory was not empty. File or directory is in
use by another process
The -o option was specified and the indicated file
is open or otherwise in use by another process.
The following commands, which are included by default in
the root user's crontab entry by current releases of the
operating system, clean out the /tmp and /var/tmp directories:
/usr/sbin/dirclean -a +2 /tmp/ /usr/sbin/dirclean
-a +7 /var/tmp/
These entries replaced the find and rm invocations
included in that crontab entry by older releases of
the operating system. (For complete emulation of
the former crontab entries, these dirclean commands
should include -k bcdlps in addition to the options
shown.) The following command removes empty directories
from a directory tree ($MYDIR):
/usr/sbin/dirclean -k bcflps $MYDIR
This dirclean command is equivalent to the following
combination of find and rmdir commands:
find $MYDIR -mount -depth -type d -exec rmdir {} \;
In preparation for recompiling files in a large
project, the following command removes all entries
from an object file directory (objs) but keeps the
directory itself:
/usr/sbin/dirclean -k '' objs
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES [Toc] [Back] Provides a default value for the internationalization
variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or
null, the corresponding value from the default locale is
used. If any of the internationalization variables contain
an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of
the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty
string value, overrides the values of all the other internationalization
variables. Determines the locale for the
format and contents of diagnostic messages written to
standard error. Determines the location of message catalogs
for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
Commands: find(1), rm(1), rmdir(1), xargs(1)
Functions: fchdir(2), fuser(2), lstat(2), rmdir(2),
unlink(2), utimes(2)
dirclean(8)
[ Back ] |
