Preview Old Temp Files Before Deleting

A temporary upload directory may contain stale files, but you need evidence before removing anything.

Command

find /lab/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads -xdev -type f -mtime +7 -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %10s %p\n' | sort

Before you run this

System impact: Read-only. Can create load on large logs, directories, filesystems, or process tables.

When not to use it: Do not pipe this directly to rm until owners, retention rules, and open-file state are understood.

Expected output

Old candidate files with modification date, byte size, and path.

System impact

Read-only, can be slow. Nothing changes. The command prints only candidate files older than the threshold.

May require elevated permissions on protected paths or service-owned files.

Scope this to the smallest useful path or service on busy systems.

When to use it

Use before manual cleanup of upload, export, cache, or temp paths where age matters.

When not to use it

Do not pipe this directly to rm until owners, retention rules, and open-file state are understood.

Recovery / rollback

No undo needed because the command only prints candidates.

Explanation-only example

Illustrated output, not a live lab run

This example is intentionally illustrative. It shows the command shape without killing real processes or changing your machine.

demo@lab:~$

$ find /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads -xdev -type f -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %10s %p\n' | sort

2026-06-01   78643200 /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads/old-export.tar
2026-06-25   23068672 /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads/recent-export.tar

$ find /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads -xdev -type f -mtime +7 -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td %10s %p\n' | sort

2026-06-01   78643200 /work/disk-inode-cleanup/var/tmp/uploads/old-export.tar

View commands shown

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