Re: deleting backup files dependant on their age

[Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se>]

Sharon Kimble <boudiccas@skimble.plus.com> writes:

> I'm revisiting the age-old problem of deleting
> backup files, where currently I have 1,383 which is
> increasing day-by-day.

OK, first, by "backups", you mean files like
this~, right?

Second, are you sure 1383 files is a problem? As an
example, I have 887 mails (not backups) in a folder
and according to

    du -sh

they total 89M. So it is not a lot.

Third, you can use the -I option of ls(1) if you just
don't want to see them.

Fourth, if you would consider no backups at all, try
this:
    
    (setq make-backup-files nil)
    (setq auto-save-list-file-prefix nil)

> I have this in my ... but its failing to work, saying this -
> Symbol's value as variable is void:
> ~/.emacs.d/backups

You probably need to make that a string, i.e.
"~/.emacs.d/backups".

> How then can I set up auto-delete backup files for
> older than 14 days which are held in
> "~/.emacs.d/backups" please?

You can also do this in the shell with find(1) but
perhaps you want do try the Emacs solution first.
Otherwise it would probably be just as doable
with 'find'.

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