Unix Shell: find files by a date range

I needed to restore some files from an archive on UNIX, but only the files of a particular date-range were needed.  It took a few moments to find and figure out how I could easily extract files older than a particular date, or files from a particular date-range. This is how:

  1. Create a perimeter file, like so:
    touch -t yyyymmddHHMM marker_date

  2. List files older than the marker_date:
    find . -type f ! -newer marker_date -ls
    Of course, instead of `-ls’ parameter (to list), you can use `-print’ and a pipe to xargs to, for example, delete the selected files, etc.

Likewise, for a range of dates:

  1. Create the perimeter files:
    touch -t yyyymmddHHMM range_start
    touch -t yyyymmddHHMM range_end

  2. List the files between the range dates:
    find . -type f -newer range_start ! -newer range_end -ls

6 thoughts on “Unix Shell: find files by a date range

  1. Hi,
    That’s very helpful :)
    I would like to know if I could translate your post in French (with a backlink for sure)
    Thanks by advance
    Best Regards
    Pierre-Yves

  2. Hi Pierre! And sorry for the slow response… I need to tend to my blog more often! :)

    Yes, absolutely! And a backlink would be great! :)

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