Question

I am using Linux ksh to remove some old directories that I don’t want.

What I use is this:

   #! /bin/ksh
   OLD=/opt/backup
   DIR_PREFIX="active"
   DIRS=$(ls ${OLD} -t | grep ${DIR_PREFIX})
   i=0
   while [[ $i -lt ${#DIRS[*]} ]]; do
       if [ $i -gt 4 ];
      then
          echo ${DIRS[$i]}
          ((i++))
      else
          ((i++))
      fi
  done

what I am trying to do is: to store a list all the directories sorted by time into a variable-I assume it would be an array but somehow the size of it is 1… …, then in the while loop, if the position of the directory is greater than 4, then I print out the directory name.

Any idea of how to

Answer 1

OLD=/opt/backup
DIR_PREFIX="active"
DIRS_RESULT=$(ls ${OLD} -t | grep ${DIR_PREFIX})
i=0
for DIR in ${DIRS_RESULT}
    do
        if [ $i -gt 4 ];
        then
            echo ${DIR}
            rm -rf ${DIR}
            ((i++))
        else
            ((i++))
        fi
    done

this one works for me