I would like to copy all the files created in the last 12 months to a new folder leaving behind everything else. Including sub folders.
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Strictly speaking, this is almost impossible; most *nix systems don't keep track of files' creation date/times. You can, however, look at when they were last changed or modified.– G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'Apr 23, 2015 at 3:13
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By “including sub folders”, do you mean that they should be copied, that files in them should be copied, or that they should be left behind?– Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'Apr 24, 2015 at 4:53
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1 Answer
assuming you are ok with a flat destination folder (everything moved to the same place):
find /<top_level_folder> -type f -ctime -365 -exec cp -f {} /<new_folder_destination> \;
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To get all files changed in the past year, use
-ctime -365(or perhaps-366). Apr 23, 2015 at 3:15 -
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You could also use -mtime instead of -ctime to get all files modified in the last year Apr 23, 2015 at 3:36
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Well, yes; as I (somewhat obscurely) point out in a comment on the question, there are two different ways of interpreting the question. They are not equivalent. Apr 23, 2015 at 3:39
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1This question probably calls for
-mtime, not-ctime. All kinds of things can change the ctime, such as changing permissions. If you want to find files created or modified in a certain date range, then the mtime is exactly right, under the reasonable assumption that it was not deliberately modified. Apr 24, 2015 at 4:52