Clean Up Your Room
Two-steps to sanity ... er ... a cleaner server.
- By Jeffery Hicks
- December 06, 2006
How often did your mom tell you to pick up after yourself? It's something
you probably tell your users as well. It's a sad fact, but occasionally
you need to do some housecleaning. Depending on your applications, you
may find all sort of backup and temp files that simply need to be cleaned
out. Here's an easy, two-step process.
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First, we'll use the FOR command to create a text file
FOR /f %x in ("~*.*,*.bak,*.tmp,*.dmp") do @DIR
E:\Files\%x /s /b >>deleteme.txt
In parentheses and quotes, add all the file extensions you want to find
separated by commas. Change the DIR path accordingly. This command will
recurse from this directory and record the full path of every file found
in the deleteme.txt file. The command will append to deleteme.txt if it
already exists, so delete the file before running the command again or
use a different file name.
When the command finishes, review deleteme.txt to make sure there's nothing
you want to keep. Edit the file as needed. To delete all the files, simply
run:
FOR /f "tokens=*" %x in (deleteme.txt) do @DEL
"%x"
In no time at all you've have your server cleaned up and you'll be able
to go out and play.
I'll come back to these techniques in another column and exploit them
further.
About the Author
Jeffery Hicks is an IT veteran with over 25 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT infrastructure consultant specializing in Microsoft server technologies with an emphasis in automation and efficiency. He is a multi-year recipient of the Microsoft MVP Award in Windows PowerShell. He works today as an independent author, trainer and consultant. Jeff has written for numerous online sites and print publications, is a contributing editor at Petri.com, and a frequent speaker at technology conferences and user groups.