ChatGPT On GNU Find

Me:

On a linux server, how could I use the find command to delete any files with a change time older than August 19th, 2019?

ChatGPT:

To delete files with a change time older than August 19th, 2019 using the find command on a Linux server, you can use the following command:

find /path/to/search/ -type f -ctime +365 -exec rm -f {} \;

This will search for all regular files (-type f) under the specified path (/path/to/search/) with a change time greater than 365 days (-ctime +365) and delete them (-exec rm -f {} \;).

Be sure to specify the correct path to search, and double check that the command is correct before running it, as the rm command will permanently delete the files and they cannot be recovered.

Note: This command assumes that the current date is later than August 19th, 2019. If the current date is earlier than that, you will need to adjust the number of days in the -ctime argument accordingly.

Me:

That command would delete any files older than December 5 2021. However, I’m looking to delete files older than August 19th, 2019.

ChatGPT:

To delete files with a change time older than August 19th, 2019 using the find command on a Linux server, you can use the following command:

find /path/to/search/ -type f -ctime +1096 -exec rm -f {} \;

This will search for all regular files (-type f) under the specified path (/path/to/search/) with a change time greater than 1096 days (-ctime +1096) and delete them (-exec rm -f {} \;).

Be sure to specify the correct path to search, and double check that the command is correct before running it, as the rm command will permanently delete the files and they cannot be recovered.

Note: This command assumes that the current date is later than August 19th, 2019. If the current date is earlier than that, you will need to adjust the number of days in the -ctime argument accordingly.

Testing the answer:

It didn’t get this right. Initially, it gave a solution that would find files that have been changed at least 1 year ago.

The solution in its follow up was also wrong, in that it would have deleted files older than Dec 5 2019, when we specifically asked for files older than August 19, 2019.

[root@host ~]# date -d "1096 days ago"
Thu Dec  5 19:43:26 EST 2019

The correct command would have been:

find /path/to/search/ -type f -ctime +1204 -exec rm -f {} \;

[root@host ~]# date -d "1204 days ago"
Mon Aug 19 20:48:14 EDT 2019

However, it does seem that ChatGPT is not aware of current dates, so this may be a current limitation.