Question

Inside a folder (say c:\test) I want to delete the oldest file if the number of files are over 21.

This is what I came up with, issue is that it one time deletes the oldest file, second run it does nothing and deletes the oldest for third, continues like that. Also it doesn’t care if the file amount is lower than 21, deletes even if it is lower.

Here is the code:

SET BACKUPDIR=C:\test
SET countfiles=dir BACKUPDIR /b | find /v /c "::"

if countfiles GTR 21 (
FOR /F %%i IN ('DIR /B /O-D %BACKUPDIR%') DO SET OLDEST=%%i
DEL %BACKUPDIR%\%OLDEST%
)

Answer 1

here’s an alternative in vbscript, that iterates the directory just once.

Set objFS=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objArgs = WScript.Arguments
strFolder = objArgs(0)
strScriptName = WScript.ScriptFullName 'get script name
Set objFolder = objFS.GetFolder(strFolder)
Set dict = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary") 
current  = Now
temp=0
count=0 'count files
For Each strFile In objFolder.Files
    If strFile.Path <> strScriptName Then 'do if not script name
      count=count+1
      dict.Add strFile.Path, strFile.DateLastModified
      'if there are more than 21 files
      If count >= 21 Then
        flag=1
      End If
    End If
Next

filedate = dict.Items
filename = dict.keys
If flag = 1 Then
    For i = 0 To dict.Count -1 'iterate dictionary
      diffdate = DateDiff("d",filedate(i),now)
      If num_days_diff >= temp Then
        oldestfile = filename(i)
        oldestdate = filedate(i)
        temp = num_days_diff
      End If             
    Next
End If 
Set dict=Nothing
WScript.Echo "Oldest file: " & oldestfile, oldestdate
objFS.DeleteFile(oldestfile)

save as deletefile.vbs and on command line

c:\test> cscript /nologo deletefile.vbs c:\path\somewhere