Find files based on the date in filename. The motivation behind this little script was that using find . -mtime +14 to find more than 14 days old log files relies on the files' timestamps and it’s not usually what I want. I’d rather rely on the date in the filename. With that in mind this script was created to resemble find: define how old or new a file needs to be and which directories to search.
To see how to use:
./fdated.py -hAn example:
# note the file that doesn't have a date in it
$ ls logs
main-2018-04-20.log
main-2018-04-21.log
main-2018-04-22.log
main-2018-04-23.log
main-2018-04-24.log
main-2018-04-25.log
main-2018-04-26.log
main-2018-04-27.log
main-2018-04-28.log
main-2018-04-29.log
main-2018-04-30.log
notfound.log
# Define today as April 30 and find all files with a date in the filename in
# directory logs. Note that the file notfound.log isn't listed.
$ ./fdated.py -t 2018-04-30 logs/
logs/main-2018-04-30.log
logs/main-2018-04-28.log
logs/main-2018-04-29.log
logs/main-2018-04-21.log
logs/main-2018-04-27.log
logs/main-2018-04-23.log
logs/main-2018-04-22.log
logs/main-2018-04-20.log
logs/main-2018-04-25.log
logs/main-2018-04-24.log
logs/main-2018-04-26.log
# Find all files that are newer than 2 days. Since today is defined as April 30,
# find all files newer than 2018-04-28.
$ ./fdated.py -t 2018-04-30 -n 2 logs/
logs/main-2018-04-30.log
logs/main-2018-04-29.log
# Find all files older than 9 days: all before 2018-04-21.
$ ./fdated.py -t 2018-04-30 -o 9 logs/
logs/main-2018-04-20.log
# Find all files older than 4 days and newer than 6. I.e. those that are exactly
# 5 days old: 2018-04-25.
$ ./fdated.py -t 2018-04-30 -o 4 -n 6 logs/
logs/main-2018-04-25.log