Consuela

Service for cleaning out user specified folders on a configurable schedule. Written in dot net core so technically cross platform, but with every intention of using it as a Windows Service. I have unoriginally named this program "Consuela" because I thought it would be funny. It is obviously in reference to the Family Guy character. She makes me giggle and I can relate to her character since I grew up in a Latin household.

Brief background

This service started as a LinqPad script that I run with Windows Task Scheduler. I have become reliant on this service to perform clean up for me on certain folders I think of "Dump" folders. You can see the original LinqPad script in my code-snippets repository here.

Why would I want this?

I don't know about you, but I have several folders I use for temporary throw away work. I refer to these folders as Dump folders, because the contents in it is usually only for "at the moment" work. The problem I found with keeping said Dump folders is that too much junk accumulates in them over time and worse I start to second guess if I need the contents in my Dump folder or not.

The solution

Therefore the idea I came up with to solve this problem is to create a program (started off as a script) to periodically wipe out the contents of my Dump folders based on age of its contents. In other words, "Delete everything that is older than 30 days in folder X." I did this with the full knowledge and motto that:

If it was important, then you shouldn't have put it in the Dump folder.

This may not work well for everyone, but it works great for me because at the beginning of each month I am guaranteed that anything older than 30 days is purged from my dump folders.

Usage

I have a folder structure I use and a methodology to govern the use of this file deletion service.

Before I dive into this, obviously you should BE CAREFUL when using this program. I promise it will delete your files whether you wanted it to or not because you instructed it to.

Structure

I have two folders that I use for the purposes of dumping files. Some people use their desktop for this purpose, I hate that because I like a clean desktop, therefore I have designated a few purpose driven folders for dumping. I am going to be referencing the C: drive for the sake of argument in these examples.

• Dump folder
  • C:\Dump\
  • Temporary files of any kind. Can include more folders inside of it.
  • Examples:
    • Temporary saved images
    • Screen shots
    • Text file for temporary processing
    • Just need to save something somewhere right now
    • Creation of archive files (zip, rar, tar etc...)
    • Creating sheets in preparation for making a PDF binder
• Downloads folder
  • C:\Dump\Downloads
  • Like the name implies, this is where you download files to usually from your Browser such as Chrome, but can be from any program where you are performing a temporary "Save as..." operation.
  • Examples:
    • Installation files
    • Executable files
    • Pictures
    • Video
    • Music

Methodology

As you can see from the structure above the Downloads folder is nested inside of the Dump folder. That's user preference, but I did that to prove that my ignore list would work when I was building the script out initially.

• I expect the Dump folder to be cleared out on the first of the month, but the Downloads folder should not be deleted.
• I expect the Downloads folder to be cleared out as well.
• Items are deleted based on age, so something I put in the folder yesterday is only one day old by tomorrow and should not be deleted.
• I have a rolling delete log that is generated to indicate what was deleted and any errors that may have occurred along the way. Windows is notorious for screwing up file operations that are at the C# level. This is still a worry of mine.
• When I want to group a bunch of temporary files together, I put them in the Dump folder and name them Delete with a number following like so:
  • C:\Dump\delete1
  • C:\Dump\delete2
  • C:\Dump\delete3 I will do my best not to review the contents of these folders because like I said above: If it is important, then it shouldn't be in the dump folder. The same goes for download files. Want to keep a download file for the future? Then move it or it's gone in 30 days.

Ignore list

There are some files I keep in the dump folder because technically it doesn't matter if they are deleted, but I like to have them around for constant use and re-use. These are my temp files and they are named exactly that. Think of it as scratch space where you are just trying to work something out and you don't know if it is worth keeping yet. Here are examples of that:

• temp.txt
• blah.txt
• temp.sql
• temp.linq
• temp.js
• ... you get the idea ...

These files are all part of an ignore list so that they are not deleted because there is no reason to delete them. It just causes me more work when I need to save a snippet of something in the near future. I also tend to have Notepad++ open 24/7 so that means that some or all of those files are already open in Notepad++ or another editor such as SSMS.

Change log

1. 08/04/2018 - Initial upload of LinqPad Script named "Delete files older than.linq". Been using it in conjunction with Windows Task Scheduler for a long time. Works well as far as I can tell even if it is not perfect. The worst that can happen is sometimes it doesn't delete files which isn't a big deal, just annoying. This is a well known problem with C# and file system operations.
2. 04/22/2022 - Creation of repo and port of LinqPad script into C# dot net core project. Initial upload so I have a baseline. I have every intention of fleshing this program out more into a Windows Service and potentially hosting a Web Application management interface. I want to break down the code into interfaces and services so I can unit test and integration test appropriately. This program is difficuilt to test because of the file system component.
3. 07/30/2022 - Added quality of life changes including:
   1. Indicating when the next run will happen in the UI
   2. Being able to change the port number for the web server through the UI or appsettings.json
   3. Some minor profile validation on save to avoid making regretable mistakes. IE: Audit path is EXE path, bad idea.
   4. Exporting the run statistics as a JSON file. Removed it from the text log.
   5. Exporting the audit log as an excel file besides just a text log.
   6. Rolling audit file purge after 30 days.
   7. Some minor UI tweaks including a page for viewing/editing the port number.
   8. Found some bugs regarding how the clean up service was running and not able to process nested clean up folders. It works now.
4. 07/31/2022 - While working on getting the installer to work I stumbled across a dumb bug I introduced yesterday for log 3. I forgot to bootstrap a new class, so I am producing version 1.3.0.1 which will have an installer ready to go with it.
   1. I have tested the installer enough to be happy with its function. It is still a little flaky on uninstall, but not a big deal you can just delete your installation folder when it's done. I am using Inno Setup which is far better than what I was trying to use that is provided by Microsoft.
   2. I have included a short cut to the default web server instance that is installed in the start menu.
   3. Finally got past the annoying Error 1053 the service did not respond to the start or control request which provided absolutely no information. It turned out to be a problem with dot net 6 which doesn't surprise me. Found the answer here.
   4. I didn't realize I wasn't writing log information to a file! That was a complete miss on my end. I am now writing two separate files:
      1. A start up file will only appear in the root install if an error occurs on start up. This is how I identified what was happening with the windows service 1053 error.
      2. In general there are console messages, those will go to the default Audit folder. The audit folder is automatically cleaned up so I don't think this is a big deal.