Here's how I would do it: 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

die "Usage: $0 directory_path\n" unless ( @ARGV == 1 and -d $ARGV[0] )
+;
my $target_dir = shift;
chdir $target_dir or die "chdir $target_dir: $!\n";

opendir( my $dir, "." );
my %files = map { $_ => -M } grep /\w/, readdir( $dir );
my @bacs = sort { $files{$a} <=> $files{$b} } grep /\.bac$/, keys %fil
+es;
@bacs or die "No *.bac file found in $target_dir - nothing to do\n";

my $latest_bac_age = $files{$bacs[0]};
( my $latest_bac_id = $bacs[0] ) =~ s/^(\w+).*/$1/;
warn "latest bac file in $target_dir is $bacs[0]\n";

for my $f ( keys %files ) {
    my $result = "kept";
    if ( $files{$f} > $latest_bac_age and $f !~ /^$latest_bac_id/ and 
+-f $f ) {
        unlink $f and $result = "deleted";
    }
    warn "$result $f\n";
}

[download]
You can skip the "warn" outputs if you like, but for this sort of thing, I think it's nice to keep a log of what actually happens on a given run.

Updated the script to include the two "… or die …" conditions -- I should have had those in there from the beginning. Also updated the logic in the for loop: added the "-f $f" condition to the "if" statement (no point trying to unlink sub-directories), and only report "deleted" if the deletion actually succeeds.

In reply to Re: removing files with perl based on age and name by graff
in thread removing files with perl based on age and name by Jocqui

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