> NOTE: This page was generated from the Puppet source code on 2024-08-28 16:45:59 -0700

# tidy

- Attributes

## Description

Remove unwanted files based on specific criteria. Multiple criteria are OR’d together, so a file that is too large but is not old enough will still get tidied. Ignores managed resources.

If you don’t specify either `age` or `size`, then all files will be removed.

This resource type works by generating a file resource for every file that should be deleted and then letting that resource perform the actual deletion.

## Attributes

    tidy { 'resource title':
      path      => # (namevar) The path to the file or directory to manage....
      age       => # Tidy files whose age is equal to or greater than
      backup    => # Whether tidied files should be backed up.  Any...
      matches   => # One or more (shell type) file glob patterns...
      max_files => # In case the resource is a directory and the...
      recurse   => # If target is a directory, recursively descend...
      rmdirs    => # Tidy directories in addition to files; that is...
      size      => # Tidy files whose size is equal to or greater...
      type      => # Set the mechanism for determining age.  Default:
      # ...plus any applicable metaparameters.
    }

### path

(Namevar: If omitted, this attribute’s value defaults to the resource’s title.)

The path to the file or directory to manage. Must be fully qualified.

(↑ Back to tidy attributes)

### age

Tidy files whose age is equal to or greater than the specified time. You can choose seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks by specifying the first letter of any of those words (for example, ‘1w’ represents one week).

Specifying 0 will remove all files.

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### backup

Whether tidied files should be backed up. Any values are passed directly to the file resources used for actual file deletion, so consult the `file` type’s backup documentation to determine valid values.

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### matches

One or more (shell type) file glob patterns, which restrict the list of files to be tidied to those whose basenames match at least one of the patterns specified. Multiple patterns can be specified using an array.

Example:

    tidy { '/tmp':
      age     => '1w',
      recurse => 1,
      matches => [ '[0-9]pub*.tmp', '*.temp', 'tmpfile?' ],
    }

This removes files from `/tmp` if they are one week old or older, are not in a subdirectory and match one of the shell globs given.

Note that the patterns are matched against the basename of each file – that is, your glob patterns should not have any ‘/’ characters in them, since you are only specifying against the last bit of the file.

Finally, note that you must now specify a non-zero/non-false value for recurse if matches is used, as matches only apply to files found by recursion (there’s no reason to use static patterns match against a statically determined path). Requiring explicit recursion clears up a common source of confusion.

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### max_files

In case the resource is a directory and the recursion is enabled, puppet will generate a new resource for each file file found, possible leading to an excessive number of resources generated without any control.

Setting `max_files` will check the number of file resources that will eventually be created and will raise a resource argument error if the limit will be exceeded.

Use value `0` to disable the check. In this case, a warning is logged if the number of files exceeds 1000.

Default: `0`

Allowed values:

- `/^[0-9]+$/`

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### recurse

If target is a directory, recursively descend into the directory looking for files to tidy.

Allowed values:

- `true`
- `false`
- `inf`
- `/^[0-9]+$/`

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### rmdirs

Tidy directories in addition to files; that is, remove directories whose age is older than the specified criteria. This will only remove empty directories, so all contained files must also be tidied before a directory gets removed.

Allowed values:

- `true`
- `false`
- `yes`
- `no`

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### size

Tidy files whose size is equal to or greater than the specified size. Unqualified values are in kilobytes, but b, k, m, g, and t can be appended to specify bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and terabytes, respectively. Only the first character is significant, so the full word can also be used.

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### type

Set the mechanism for determining age.

Default: `atime`

Allowed values:

- `atime`
- `mtime`
- `ctime`

(↑ Back to tidy attributes)