write a batch file to remove the folders by date and time wise

Question

Exact Duplicates:

• How to write a batch file to delete the files which are 5 days or older from a folder?
• write a batch file to delete 6 days older files from a folder
• write a batch file to delete 5 daya older files from a folder
• How do I write a batch file to delete folders and files on a time basis?
• How do I create a batch script that will delete a folder on a scheduled basis?
• write a script to delete files from a folder which are 5 days older than current date

I have a folder named 'dump' on a sever on a network. Every day lot of temp files and folders will be saved in that folder.

I want to delete those files and sub folders. The condition is that I want to delete one hour before files & folders only i.e one our before the current time when we are running the batch file.

This means I want to keep one our files in that folder to run the other ACTIVITIES. like this current time.

1. go to folder and list the files as time wise
2. get the current time
3. delete the files which were 1 hour older than current time

Answer 1

The only way I know that I know that what you are trying to do might be possible is using the for command and the ~t expanding parameter.

for %r in (*.*) DO echo %r "created on" %~tr

That produces:

C:\>echo BOOTSECT.BAK "created on" 2009/02/17 11:59 PM
BOOTSECT.BAK "created on" 2009/02/17 11:59 PM

C:\>echo config.sys "created on" 2006/09/18 11:43 PM
config.sys "created on" 2006/09/18 11:43 PM

I think a more likely scenario would involve using windows scripting host, or powershell, but you did not mention that those are options for you, so I am assuming that there is a good reason, for not being able to use those technologies.

Answer 2

I think you are better off using PowerShell or WSH (as Rihan Meij mentioned) in this case. Comparing data and time is possible but very brittle (as there is no way to get a data/time in batch culturally-neutral). You might write something like this:

setlocal enableextensions
set Now=%date%
set NowTime=%time:~0,-3%
call :tokenize_date %Now%
call :tokenize_time %NowTime%
echo %YEAR%-%MONTH%-%DAY%T%HOUR%:%MINUTE%:%SECOND%
call :one_hour_before %Now% %NowTime%
echo %RESULT_DATE% %RESULT_TIME%
ping -n 1 -w 1500 ::1>NUL
set Now2=%date%
set NowTime2=%time:~0,-3%
call :date_time_compare %Now% %NowTime% %Now2% %NowTime2%
echo %Now%T%NowTime% compared to %Now2%T%NowTime2%: %RESULT%
endlocal
goto :eof

:tokenize_date
    rem assuming ISO 8601 date format YYYY-MM-DD
    setlocal enableextensions
    set arg=%1
    set YEAR=%arg:~0,4%
    set MONTH=%arg:~5,2%
    set DAY=%arg:~8,2%
    endlocal&set YEAR=%YEAR%&set MONTH=%MONTH%&set DAY=%DAY%
goto :eof

:tokenize_time
    rem assuming ISO-8601 time format HH:MM:SS, 24-hour
    setlocal enableextensions
    set arg=%1
    set HOUR=%arg:~0,2%
    set MINUTE=%arg:~3,2%
    set SECOND=%arg:~6,2%
    endlocal&set HOUR=%HOUR%&set MINUTE=%MINUTE%&set SECOND=%SECOND%
goto :eof

:one_hour_before
    rem gets a date as %1 and a time as %2
    rem returns a date in RESULT_DATE and a time in RESULT_TIME
    setlocal enabledelayedexpansion enableextensions
    set months=31 28 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31
    set i=0
    for %%x in (%months%) do (
        set /a i+=1
        set month_length_!i!=%%x
    )
    call :tokenize_date %1
    call :tokenize_time %2
    set /a HOUR-=1
    if %HOUR% LSS 0 (
        set /a DAY-=1
        set /a HOUR+=24
        if %DAY% LSS 0 (
            set /a MONTH-=1
            if %MONTH% LSS 0 (
                set /a YEAR-=1
                set /a MONTH+=12
            )
            set /a DAY+=month_length_!MONTH!
        )
    )
    endlocal&set RESULT_DATE=%YEAR%-%MONTH%-%DAY%&set RESULT_TIME=%HOUR%:%MINUTE%:%SECOND%
goto :eof

:date_time_compare
    rem expects %1 - date 1, %2 - time 1, %3 - date 2, %4 - time 2
    rem returns a value < 0 if datetime1 is earlier than datetime2
    rem                 > 0                 later than
    rem                 = 0                 equal to
    rem the return value is saved in the variable %RETURN%
    setlocal enableextensions
    call :tokenize_date %3
    call :tokenize_time %4
    set YEAR2=%YEAR%
    set MONTH2=%MONTH%
    set DAY2=%DAY%
    set HOUR2=%HOUR%
    set MINUTE2=%MINUTE%
    set SECOND2=%SECOND%
    call :tokenize_date %1
    call :tokenize_time %2
    if %YEAR2% GTR %YEAR% (endlocal&set RESULT=-1&goto :eof) else (
        if %YEAR2% LSS %YEAR% (endlocal&set RESULT=1&goto :eof) else (
            if %MONTH2%%DAY2%%HOUR2%%MINUTE2%%SECOND2% GTR %MONTH%%DAY%%HOUR%%MINUTE%%SECOND% (
                endlocal&set RESULT=-1&goto :eof
            ) else (
                if %MONTH2%%DAY2%%HOUR2%%MINUTE2%%SECOND2%==%MONTH%%DAY%%HOUR%%MINUTE%%SECOND% (
                    endlocal&set RESULT=0&goto :eof
                ) else (
                    endlocal&set RESULT=1&goto :eof
                )
            )
        )
    )
goto :eof

Sorry, it has gotten a bit long. Comparing date/time has only partially been tested right now, but should work. Careful with the time when it contains sub-seconds, since those introduce a comma here, which disturbs the argument order for called subroutines (hence the %time:~0,-3% to avoid that).

After that you can use the %~tI expansion to get a date and a time, compare them to current minus one hour and delete if applicable.

Note 1: I am assuming ISO 8601 date and time formats with 24 hours, which is what I am using here. For non-standard date formats you would have to alter the subroutines a bit (but 12 hour time would probably be a pain).

Note 2: The code doesn't care about leap years, currently. Would be another 5 or 6 lines of code in :one_hour_before, I think.