bash file cron job has issue when new file arrives at vendor

Question

I have changed this post down to just what I think the main problem is..

ls -t1 /home/jdoe/checks/downloads/*.md5 | head -n +2 | xargs rm -r

This removes the oldest files..

And to test:

ls -t1 /home/jdoe/checks/downloads/*.md5 | head -n +2

We really want to leave the two (2) newest files:

ls -t1 /home/jdoe/checks/downloads/*.md5 | tail -n +2 | xargs rm -r

This does not seem to work..

And to test:

ls -t1 /home/jdoe/checks/downloads/*.md5 | tail -n +2

Thanks!

I can't find a Q, interesting as your back-story is ;-) Maybe you want to highlight something like 'Why is X happening' OR 'How do we do Y' at the top, then we can read the backstory if needed. Actually, you should probably re-read http://stackoverflow.com/help/mcve` and whittle the above down to just the current issue. Good Luck! — shellter, Mar 10 '16 at 16:03
@shellter I have changed the formatting of the question to be what I think the main problem is at this point. — Leptonator, Mar 15 '16 at 14:47
arg! you wrote "leave the two latest how to delete all files except the latest three in a folder". Disregarding two or three, you want to be able to leave the N newest files in a directory, and delete all others? — shellter, Mar 15 '16 at 15:37
@shellter I apologize for confusing question, but yes I want to leave the two (2) newest files. — Leptonator, Mar 15 '16 at 15:41
ok, no worries. I have something else, I'll be back in a little while (less than 1 hr I think). Good luck. — shellter, Mar 15 '16 at 16:01

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 15 '16 at 16:22

1

I was able to get some assistance from one of my co-workers and this appears to be what we need.

   ls -1tr /home/jdoe/checks/downloads/*.md5 | head -n -2 | while read f; do
     #rm -f "$f"
     print "file to delete is $f"
   done

answered Mar 15 '16 at 16:22

Leptonator

1 Answers1