Question

I’m trying to create a script that checks a folder for files older than 7 days and deletes them, but only if a file younger than 1 day from “now” exists.

So, if a new file has been created that is less than 1 day old, then delete all files older than seven days.

This is my script –

import os, time
path = r"C:\Temp" #working path#
now = time.time()
for f in os.listdir(path):
 f = os.path.join(path, f)
 if os.stat(os.path.join(path, f).st_mtime < now -1 * 86400 and\ #checking new file#
 if os.stat(os.path.join(path,f)).st_mtime < now - 7 * 86400: #checking old files#
  if os.path.isfile(f):
   os.remove(os.path.join(path, f)

I’m getting syntax errors in my line checking for old files. Am I not indenting correctly, is this an invalid way to code this? A program creates a new file each day. This script checks to see if that file has been created, and if this is true, then checks for files older than seven days and deletes them. I don’t understand the syntax error, the logic is correct, am I right?

Answer 1

import os, time
path = r"C:\Temp" #working path#
now = time.time()
old_files = [] # list of files older than 7 days
new_files = [] # list of files newer than 1 day
for f in os.listdir(path):
    fn = os.path.join(path, f)
    mtime = os.stat(fn).st_mtime
    if mtime > now - 1 * 86400:
        # this is a new file
        new_files.append(fn)
    elif mtime < now - 7 * 86400:
        # this is an old file
        old_files.append(fn)
    # else file between 1 and 7 days old, ignore
if new_files:
    # if there are any new files, then delete all old files
    for fn in old_files:
        os.remove(fn)