delete folders based on name as date in mm/dd/yy in bash script

Question

I want to delete all directories apart from the current date's directory. directory names are taken as date in this MM-DD-YY format so directory name is

10-12-17

10-11-17

10-10-17 ..etc

    #!/bin/bash
    echo Hello World!

    one_day=$(date -d "1 days ago" +%m%d%y)
    for f in [0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]; do
    [ -d "$f" ] || continue
    (( $f < $one_day )) &&  sudo rm -rf "$f"
    done

While running my script I am getting the following error:

./script.sh: line 9: ((: 10-08: value too great for base (error token is "08")

./script.sh: line 9: ((: 10-09: value too great for base (error token is "09")

Have you accepted the good news of ISO8601 into your heart today? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601 — Alexx Roche
– Alexx Roche, Commented Oct 13, 2017 at 13:51
s=$(date +%m-%d-%y); mv $s .$s; rm -rf [0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]; mv .$s $s #why not just do that? — Alexx Roche
– Alexx Roche, Commented Oct 13, 2017 at 14:00

Alexx Roche · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-13 13:25:56Z

1

You seem to be trying to check an inequality between "11-10-17" and "111017" (one is an int and the other is a string). Bash will let you check for a string inequality using !=

#!/bin/bash

one_day=$(date -d "1 days ago" +%m-%d-%y)
for f in [0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]; do
  [ -d "$f" ] || continue
  [ "$f" != "$one_day" ] && sudo rm -rf "$f" && echo "$f" && continue
  [ "$f" == "$one_day" ] && echo "Leaving $f"
done

edited Oct 13, 2017 at 13:25

answered Oct 12, 2017 at 13:27

Alexx Roche

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5 Comments

Tushar Tyagi Over a year ago

./script.sh: line 6: ((: 10-08: value too great for base (error token is "08") ./script.sh: line 7: ((: 10-08: value too great for base (error token is "08") ./script.sh: line 6: ((: 10-09: value too great for base (error token is "09") ./script.sh: line 7: ((: 10-09: value too great for base (error token is "09")

Tushar Tyagi Over a year ago

unable to delete all folders. script is only capable enough to delete few. getting below mentioned error for folders like 10-08-17, 10-08-17, 09-30-17. ./script.sh: line 6: ((: 10-08: value too great for base (error token is "08") ./script.sh: line 7: ((: 10-08: value too great for base (error token is "08") ./script.sh: line 6: ((: 10-09: value too great for base (error token is "09") ./script.sh: line 7: ((: 10-09: value too great for base (error token is "09")

Tushar Tyagi Over a year ago

./script.sh: line 6: ((: 10-08: value too great for base (error token is "08") ./script.sh: line 7: ((: 10-08: value too great for base (error token is "08") ./script.sh: line 6: ((: 10-09: value too great for base (error token is "09") ./script.sh: line 7: ((: 10-09: value too great for base (error token is "09")

Alexx Roche Over a year ago

After testing with: for f in {0..1}{0..9}-{0..3}{0..9}-{0..9}{0..0}; do mkdir "$f"; done I found my error. I've fixed the conditional by changing (( foo != bar )) to [ foo != bar ]. Try now.

Alexx Roche Over a year ago

for f in $(seq 100); do mkdir $(date -d "$f days ago" +%m-%d-%y); done might be a better way to create a unit test for this, (and possibly a better way to iterate dates).

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