I've got a log file directory that has 82000 files and directories in it (about half and half).
I need to delete all the file and directories which are older than 3 days.
In a directory that has 37000 files in it, I was able to do this with:
find * -mtime +3 -exec rm {} \;
But with 82000 files/directories, I get the error:
/usr/bin/find: Argument list too long
How can I get around this error so that I can delete all files/directories that are older than 3 days?
To delete all files and directories within the current directory:
find . -mtime +3 | xargs rm -Rf
Or alternatively, more in line with the OP's original command:
find . -mtime +3 -exec rm -Rf -- {} \;
Can also use:
find . -mindepth 1 -mtime +3 -delete
To not delete target directory
Another solution for the original question, esp. useful if you want to remove only SOME of the older files in a folder, would be smth like this:
find . -name "*.sess" -mtime +100
and so on.. Quotes block shell wildcards, thus allowing you to "find" millions of files :)