deleting file through CMD

Question

I am trying to delete files through

forfiles -p "E:\check" -s -m *.* -d -10 -c "cmd /c del /Q /S E:\check"

But if there is a file that is more than 10 days old, it removes all files in the folder.

Answer 1

If there is a file that is more than 10 days old, it removes all files in the folder.

forfiles -p "E:\check" -s -m *.* -d -10 -c "cmd /c del /Q /S E:\check"

That is hardly surprising when you are deleting the directory you are searching (and all of its sub-directories) with the following command:

del /Q /S E:\check

Instead you need to delete the matching files. Try the following command:

forfiles -p "E:\check" -s -m *.* -d -10 -c "cmd /c del /q @path"

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Further Reading

• An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line - An excellent reference for all things Windows cmd line related.
• del - Delete one or more files.
• delolder - Delete files older than N days
• forfiles - Select a file (or set of files) and execute a command on each file. Batch processing.