Commands to delete older files in Unix / Linux

1. Delete any files/folders older than 30 days from the current directory

find . -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

* -exec : For each result found from the find command, perform the command listed next.
The {} part is where the find result gets substituted into from the previous part.

2. Delete only files (No folders) older than 30 days from the current directory

find . -type f -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

3. Delete only files older than 30 days from any directory

find <directory path to files> -type f -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

Ex : find /tmp -type f -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

4. Delete files with a fixed file name pattern or fixed extension and older than 30 days from any directory

find <directory path to files> -type f -mtime +30 -name '<file name pattern' -exec rm {} \;

Ex : find /tmp -type f -mtime +30 -name 'archive*.gz' -exec rm {} \;

        find /tmp -type f -mtime +30 -name '*' -exec rm {} \;

5. List files with a fixed file name pattern or fixed extension and older than 30 days from any directory.

find <directory path to files> -type f -mtime +30 -name '<file name pattern' -exec ls -l {} \;

Ex : find /tmp -type f -mtime +30 -name 'archive*.gz' -exec ls -l {} \;

6. Find and delete files modified in the last 30 minutes

find /tmp/ -type f -mmin 30 -exec rm {} \;
mtime = days
mmin = minutes

7. force delete temp files older then 30 days

find /tmp -mtime +30 -exec rm -f {} \;

8. move files older than 30 days to an archive folder – and preserve path strcuture

find /tmp -mtime +30 -exec mv -t {} /archive/directory/ \;
* mv -t: ensure directory structure is preserved

9. Find and delete files older than 30 days and list the files to be deleted, before you perform the delete operation.

find /tmp -mtime +30 -name * -exec echo "Delete {} " \; -exec -rm -rf {} \;