Delete file at specified time non-interactively

Question

I have a script that when executed generates a temp file that i want deleted 10 minutes after the script completes.

I have looked at the "at" command which does what I need, but it requires interactive input. Is there any way to do this non-interactively?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 05 '13 at 11:30

2

From man at:

at and batch read commands from standard input or a specified file which are to be executed at a later time, using /bin/sh.

So just send the command you would type in interactively to at as input:

echo 'rm that.file' | at now+10min

answered Apr 05 '13 at 11:30

manatwork

31,277

that will work, don't know why I didn't think of piping to at. – Karim Apr 05 '13 at 11:32
I just remembered a similar problem I had with ftp some years ago which had a solution I could reuse, this also seems to work:
at now + 10 min <<'EOF' rm $file EOF
– Karim Apr 05 '13 at 11:40

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 05 '13 at 12:33

0

An alternative is using the command sleep. For example 'sleep 600 && rm that.file' will delete that.file after 600 seconds ('man sleep' shows a more detailed example).

answered Apr 05 '13 at 12:33

superuser0

1,710

Delete file at specified time non-interactively

2 Answers2