FORFILES and deleting old files.

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FORFILES and deleting old files.

Author

Topic

ravilobo
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1184 Posts

Posted - 2011-07-29 : 12:42:27

As a part of moving away from maintenance plans, we are using the following code to purge the old backup files.

for %i in (bak,bkp) do forfiles -p d:\dbbackups -s -D -2 -m *.%i -c "cmd /c del @FILE"

This works well; however, when there are no files to delete, the code errors out and the sql job fails with following exception.

ERROR: No files found with the specified search criteria.

Any suggestions? Or is there a better way to achieve this?

------------------------
I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes

visakh16
Very Important crosS Applying yaK Herder

52326 Posts

Posted - 2011-07-29 : 13:12:17

one way of doing this is using a ssis package. I assume your backups are all stored in a common location.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL Server MVP
http://visakhm.blogspot.com/

ravilobo
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1184 Posts

Posted - 2011-07-29 : 14:10:59

I guess, maintenance plans itself are stored in a SSIS package. I don’t want a SSIS solution.

We have several servers involved, and the folder structure varies slightly. I am looking for a simpler solution.

------------------------
I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes

visakh16
Very Important crosS Applying yaK Herder

52326 Posts

Posted - 2011-07-29 : 14:17:16

SSIS is not that much complex. it cant be used even when multiple servers are involved and also folder structure varies.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL Server MVP
http://visakhm.blogspot.com/

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