How to best delete directories

[OM3]

I've found a code snippet to delete files older than 30 days
How do I change so that I do the same for folders instead of files?

So, what I want is: delete folder AND its contents if the folder is older than 30 days

The code for deleting the files is:

Code: Select all

REM Remove files older than 30 days
forfiles /p "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Downloads" /s /m *.* /c "cmd /c Del @path" /d -30

After having this setup, I can use Task Scheduler to run this batch file every 30 days
Awesome - just what I wanted

Or is there a better way to do?

Thanks


OM

[Squashman]

Forfiles has an option to test if the the data is a directory.

[ShadowThief]

del can't delete folders

Try using rd /s @path instead.

[OM3]

thanks for the replies guys
rd - that only removes empty directories surely?

the only thing i can think of is deltree - but, i'd rather not delete permanently

surely there must be a better option than to: test if directory, then delete files contained, and then remove the directory?

thanks

[ShadowThief]

rd by itself just removes directories

the /s flag deletes all files and subfolders as well

From rd /?

Code: Select all

RMDIR [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path
RD [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path

    /S      Removes all directories and files in the specified directory
            in addition to the directory itself.  Used to remove a directory
            tree.

    /Q      Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to remove a directory tree with /S

[OM3]

thanks for the replies guys
for some reason i thought rd only removed empty directories

so... is this correct:

Code: Select all

REM Remove files older than 30 days
forfiles /p "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Downloads" /s /m *.* /c "cmd /c rd /s @path" /d -30

What is /s /sm for?
What does the /c do?
forfiles - do I want this if I want to work on directories?
is there an equivalent for directories?

Thanks!

[Squashman]

http://ss64.com/nt/for_d.html
http://ss64.com/nt/forfiles.html