In this post you’ll learn how to delete files recursively with Forfiles.exe on Windows Server, for example deleting recursive if files are older than ‘n’ days (where n is 3, 5 or 10 days for example).
With Forfile.exes, you can run a command on or pass arguments to multiple files. For example, you could run the type or del command on all files in a tree with the .txt extension.
The Forfilessyntax is:
forfiles [/p <Path>] [/m <SearchMask>] [/s] [/c "<Command>"] [/d [{+|-}][{<Date>|<Days>}]]ForfilesWindows works by implementing the recurse subdirectories flag on tools that are designed to process only a single file. Lets take an example I use a lot as a scheduled task, and break it down.
Using forfiles.exe, you can easily batch delete files older than 7 days in Windows and Windows Server.
Forfiles batch process and delete files older than 'n' days
As said, you can easily delete files older than 3 days with forfiles. Here is an example to batch delete all files older than seven days in C:\Windows\Temp:
ForFiles /S /P C:\Windows\Temp /D -7 `
/C "cmd /c if @isdir==FALSE del /F /Q @file"/S: Instructs forfiles to recurse into subdirectories. Like "DIR /S"/P [pathname]: Indicates the path to start searching. The default folder is the current working directory (.)./D [date]: Selects files with a last modified date greater than or equal to (+), or less than or equal to (-), the specified date using the "MM/dd/yyyy" format; or selects files with a last modified date greater than or equal to (+) the current date plus "dd" days, or less than or equal to (-) the current date minus "dd" days. A valid "dd" number of days can be any number in the range of 0 - 32768. "+" is taken as default sign if not specified./C [command]: Indicates the command to execute for each file.
Command strings should be wrapped in double quotes. The default command is "cmd /c echo @file". The following variables can be used in the command string:- @file - returns the name of the file.
- @fname - returns the file name without extension.
- @ext - returns only the extension of the file.
- @path - returns the full path of the file.
- @relpath - returns the relative path of the file.
- @isdir - returns "TRUE" if a file type is a directory, and "FALSE" for files.
- @fsize - returns the size of the file in bytes.
- @fdate - returns the last modified date of the file.
- @ftime - returns the last modified time of the file.
So what this example does, is delete all files older than one (1) day, in C:\Windows\Temp using Forfiles on Windows. This Forfiles command is ideal for batch processing, to delete files older than 'n' days using a .bat file.
More Windows forfiles command tips
Another great forfilesto list files older than 3 days
forfiles /P Z:\devops\sites\example.org /M *.* /D -3 /C "cmd /c dir @FILE"This command finds all files in the directory Z:\devops\sites\example.orgare older than 3 days, and does a diron those files.
Again /Pthe path to perform the command in, /Ma searchmask (*.*everything), /Dthe last modified date, and /Ccommand to perform against @FILE.