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Hi Mr Dynaweb (as it looks like you who always replies to these things, but hello to anyone else who wants to help too:)

I want  to add a cron job to run every day, which deletes all files in a certain directory that are more than 3 days old.

I have gone to the Cpanel, and adding a job looks fairly straightforward, but before entering commands I want to make sure I know what I'm doing.

I have very little unix experience (only that which I have gained form running hosted websites for a few years), and want to make sure I know the commands that will filter the set of files being deleted to ONLY those older that 3 days.

As a side issue, these files are created by a php script running on the site, so I wonder about the permissions, and I wonder if there is a heirarchy to how permissions are structured. (for example is there a user 'apache, or php who may be the owner of the files?)

Hi,

This can be done through cron.

*** Updated 4/23/25 for new compatibility and details ***
Here's How to Add the Cron Job You Described


To delete files older than 3 days in a specific directory (e.g.
/home/username/tmpfiles), you can use the
find command in your cron job like this:

find /home/username/tmpfiles -type f -mtime +3 -delete
Explanation:

• Code Select Expand
  find: The command to search files.
• Code Select Expand
  /home/username/tmpfiles: Replace this with the actual directory path.
• Code Select Expand
  -type f: Only looks for files (not directories).
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  -mtime +3: Only selects files modified more than 3 days ago.
• Code Select Expand
  -delete: Deletes them.

IMPORTANT: Make absolutely sure you've tested this in a safe way (e.g. remove
-delete and add
-print to test which files would be deleted).

---

🕑 How to Set This to Run Daily
In the cPanel Cron Jobs section, under "Add New Cron Job", choose:

• Common Settings:
  
  Code Select Expand
  Once Per Day
• Command:
  
  Code Select Expand
  find /home/username/tmpfiles -type f -mtime +3 -delete

(Again, replace
/home/username/tmpfiles with the real path.)

Permissions

As for file ownership, our new cPanel servers should be configured to allow access without any problem. If you need help, feel free to open a support ticket.