Delete files that were created before today

Question

I want to search files whose creation date is prior than today.
I do :

find $HOME -type f -name "myFile_*.sql.zip" -mtime +1

but it doesn't return anything, it should at least return one file.

Where am I wrong?

Answer 1

find with -mtime +1 returns files that were modified two or more days ago.

It is a documented behavior i.e. -mtime ignores any fractional portion. From man find (Time calculation is identical in -atime, -mtime and -ctime):

-atime n

File was last accessed n*24 hours ago. When find figures out how many 24-hour periods ago the file was last accessed, any fractional part is ignored, so to match -atime +1, a file has to have been accessed at least two days ago.

Now if you can use couple of solutions:

1. You can do:

   find . -type f -mtime +0
   

   This would get you the files modified one day or more ago.

   In your case:

   find $HOME -type f -name "myFile_*.sql.zip" -mtime +0
   

2. To get precision like this case, you should use -mmin option which strictly matches minutes.

   So lets say you want to get the files that were modified more that 7 hours and 10 minutes i.e. 430 minutes ago, you can do:

   find . -type f -mmin +430
   

   In you case, do the calculation and replace 430 with that value:

   find $HOME -type f -name "myFile_*.sql.zip" -mtime +430
   

3. Another option is to do it the reverse way.

   You can create a reference file e.g. ref.txt:

    touch -d 'today + 2 days ago' ref.txt
   

   Now you can find files that were modified more recently than ref.txt:

   find . -type f -newer ref.txt
   

   In your case:

   find $HOME -type f -name "myFile_*.sql.zip" -newer ref.txt
   

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Once you are satisfied with the results, you can remove the file(s) e.g.:

find . -type f -mmin +430 -delete