automatically delete these files after 10 days they are last accessed.

To answer the second half of your question first, you could use a very nifty tool like so:

find2perl ${dir_I_am_watching} -atime +10 \
    -exec rm {} \; > myNewScript.pl
[download]

which will result in a Perl script that will act just like the Unix command "find" with the same arguments supplied to it. The code it generates in my opinion is very "raw" and will probably need some massaging, but it is a good place to start. Especially if you are not familiar with the module cpan:File::Find and all its features. A module that in any case is a good one to be familiar with as well as its many friends

As to the first half of your question I'm not sure what you are asking. If what you are asking is to look in a particular directory and act upon any file in that directory then the strategy I've mapped out for you above should work just fine. Just replace the shell variable I've cited (${dir_I_am_watching}) with the actual name of the directory and it will be hardcoded into your generated script.

Of course one of the immediate tweaks I'd make to the script is to eliminate hardcoding and add logic surrounding GetOpt::Long and provide a command line switch to the script that sets what directory it is examining as well as a command line switch that sets the age of the file I want to eliminate. Part of that logic would set defaults for sure, but by having command line switches there to modify those variables you've increased the usability of the resultant script a bit.

Lastly, you failed to say waht platform you are doing this all on. This set of strategies will work fine on *nix platforms but on others YMMV. I'm not 100% sure it will work on *doze or Mac and I'm too lazy to go find out.

HTH

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Peter L. Berghold -- Unix Professional
Peter -at- Berghold -dot- Net; AOL IM redcowdawg Yahoo IM: blue_cowdawg