 |
Index for
Section 8 |
|
 |
Alphabetical
listing for D |
|
 |
Bottom of
page |
|
dirclean(8)
NAME
dirclean - Clean directories based on time and type criteria
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/dirclean [-a|c|m|t [+|-]days]... [-k types] [-n] [-o] [-v] [-D]
dirlist
/usr/sbin/dirclean -H
OPTIONS
-a [+|-]days
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.
-c [+|-]days
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.
-k types
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):
b Keeps block-special files.
c Keeps character-special files.
d Keeps directories.
f Keeps plain (regular) files.
l Keeps symbolic links.
p Keeps named pipes ('fifos').
s 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.
-m [+|-]days
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.
-n No-removal mode. Tells which files would be deleted by the command
without actually deleting them. Specifying -n implicitly specifies -v
(verbose mode).
-o Skips (does not remove) files that are open or otherwise in use by
other processes.
-t [+|-]days
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.
-v Verbose mode; lists all files removed.
-D Debug mode; lists why any target entries are not removed.
-H Gives an extended usage summary to standard output and exits
successfully.
OPERANDS
dirlist
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.
DESCRIPTION
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.
RESTRICTIONS
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.
EXIT STATUS
0 (Zero)
Successfully traversed all the starting directories supplied by
dirlist.
1 At least one removal operation failed during directory traversal.
2 At least one pathname in dirlist was not a directory.
3 A system call invoked by the utility failed unexpectedly.
4 Incorrect arguments or another usage error was encountered.
ERRORS
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.
EXAMPLES
1. 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.)
2. 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 {} \;
3. 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
LANG
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.
LC_ALL
If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the
other internationalization variables.
LC_MESSAGES
Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH
Determines the location of message catalogs for the processing of
LC_MESSAGES.
SEE ALSO
Commands: find(1), rm(1), rmdir(1), xargs(1)
Functions: fchdir(2), fuser(2), lstat(2), rmdir(2), unlink(2), utimes(2)
|
Index for
Section 8 |
|
|
Alphabetical
listing for D |
|
 |
Top of
page |
|