tmpwatch - removes files which haven't been accessed for a period of time

tmpwatch recursively removes files which haven't been accessed for a given number of hours. Normally, it's used to clean up directories which are used for temporary holding space such as /tmp.
When changing directories, tmpwatch is very sensitive to possible race conditions and will exit with an error if one is detected. It does not follow symbolic links in the directories it's cleaning (even if a symbolic link is given as its argument), will not switch filesystems,
 and only removes empty directories and regular files. 
By default, tmpwatch dates files by their atime (access time), not their mtime (modification time). If files aren't being removed when ls -l implies they should be, use ls -u to examine their atime to see if that explains the problem.
If the --atime, --ctime or --mtime options are used in combination, the decision about deleting a file will be based on the maximum of this times.
The hours parameter defines the threshold for removing files. If the file has not been accessed for hours hours, the file is removed. Following this, one or more directories may be given for tmpwatch to clean up.

 

OPTIONS

-u, --atime

Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file's atime (access time). This is the default.

 

-m, --mtime

Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file's mtime (modification time) instead of the atime.

-c, --ctime

Make the decision about deleting a file based on the file's ctime (inode change time) instead of the atime; for directories, make the decision based on the mtime.

-a, --all

Remove all file types, not just regular files and directories.

-d, --nodirs

Do not attempt to remove directories, even if they are empty.

-f, --force

Remove files even if root doesn't have write access (akin to rm -f).

-t, --test

Doesn't remove files, but goes through the motions of removing them. This implies -v.

-s, --fuser

Attempt to use the "fuser" command to see if a file is already open before removing it. Not enabled by default. Does help in some circumstances, but not all. Dependent on fuser being installed in /sbin.

-v, --verbose

Print a verbose display. Two levels of verboseness are available -- use this option twice to get the most verbose output.

 

SEE ALSO

cron(1), ls(1), rm(1), fuser(1)

 

Example:

You may need to use a command called tmpwatch which removes files which haven’t been accessed for a period of time. Normally, it’s used to clean up directories which are used for temporary holding space such as /tmp. Following code will remove all files/dirs from /tmp if they are not accessed in last 2 weeks (24 * 14 days = 336)

Code:

tmpwatch --mtime --all 336 /tmp