Find files in created between a date range

Solution 1:

If you use GNU find, since version 4.3.3 you can do:

find -newerct "1 Aug 2013" ! -newerct "1 Sep 2013" -ls

It will accept any date string accepted by GNU date -d.

You can change the c in -newerct to any of a, B, c, or m for looking at atime/birth/ctime/mtime.

Another example - list files modified between 17:30 and 22:00 on Nov 6 2017:

find -newermt "2017-11-06 17:30:00" ! -newermt "2017-11-06 22:00:00" -ls

Full details from man find:

   -newerXY reference
          Compares the timestamp of the current file with reference.  The reference argument is normally the name of a file (and one of its timestamps  is  used
          for  the  comparison)  but  it may also be a string describing an absolute time.  X and Y are placeholders for other letters, and these letters select
          which time belonging to how reference is used for the comparison.

          a   The access time of the file reference
          B   The birth time of the file reference
          c   The inode status change time of reference
          m   The modification time of the file reference
          t   reference is interpreted directly as a time

          Some combinations are invalid; for example, it is invalid for X to be t.  Some combinations are not implemented on all systems; for example B  is  not
          supported on all systems.  If an invalid or unsupported combination of XY is specified, a fatal error results.  Time specifications are interpreted as
          for the argument to the -d option of GNU date.  If you try to use the birth time of a reference file, and the birth time cannot be determined, a fatal
          error  message  results.   If  you  specify a test which refers to the birth time of files being examined, this test will fail for any files where the
          birth time is unknown.

Solution 2:

Try the following command:

find /var/tmp -mtime +2 -a -mtime -8 -ls

This will allow you to find files in /var/tmp folder that are older than 2 days but not older than 8 days.

Solution 3:

Some good solutions on here. Wanted to share mine as well as it is short and simple.

I'm using find (GNU findutils) 4.5.11

$ find search/path/ -newermt 20130801 \! -newermt 20130831

Solution 4:

You can use the below to find what you need.

Find files older than a specific date/time:

find ~/ -mtime $(echo $(date +%s) - $(date +%s -d"Dec 31, 2009 23:59:59") | bc -l | awk '{print $1 / 86400}' | bc -l)

Or you can find files between two dates. First date more recent, last date, older. You can go down to the second, and you don't have to use mtime. You can use whatever you need.

find . -mtime $(date +%s -d"Aug 10, 2013 23:59:59") -mtime $(date +%s -d"Aug 1, 2013 23:59:59")

Solution 5:

Use stat to get the creation time. You can compare the time in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS lexicographically.

This work on Linux with modification time, creation time is not supported. On AIX, the -c option might not be supported, but you should be able to get the information anyway, using grep if nothing else works.

#! /bin/bash
from='2013-08-01 00:00:00.0000000000' # 01-Aug-13
to='2013-08-31 23:59:59.9999999999'   # 31-Aug-13

for file in * ; do
    modified=$( stat -c%y "$file" )
    if [[ $from < $modified && $modified < $to ]] ; then
        echo "$file"
    fi
done