stale files in watch folders?

We need to periodically check certain folders for stale files. E.g. if any file is there for longer than 30 minutes, alert us. Is there a simple way to do this?

P.S. timestamps don't matter and can be old, new, or in the future. The only thing that matters is that there is a file that's been hanging in a particular folder longer than NN minutes.

Thanks - and apologies in advance if this has been asked before.

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rigggggs

Have you tried using the File Age Monitor?

You can set statistic warning/critical thresholds on the last modified date of the particular file. You do have to target a specific file with the monitor, however.

akhasheni

Not monitoring specific files. The only thing that is certain is a folder. Need to monitor if any file is sitting longer than NN minutes in that folder - so by definition, a filename is unknown. (Was this not clear in my original post? Not trying to be snarky - only checking if my post was not clear - after all, English is the second language for me.)

mcam

how about run it backwards?

Instead of looking for something specific, capture the age of the files in a script (bash here) and return the file age as a variable you can use it in the monitor.

That way you can get a warning as it hits 30 and an alert when it breaks 40.

Even better, feed it back so the alert triggers an action to remove the offending file

akhasheni

All these bash scripts look for (and test) file attributes like file age, e.g. "modified" timestamp?

timestamps don't matter and can be old, new, or in the future. The only thing that matters is that there is a file that's been hanging in a particular folder longer than NN minutes.

Am I correct that this solution will mistreat (produce false positive on) a file that was dropped into the folder with all its original timestamps intact? Likewise, a file with continuously updated timestamps (such as any file that is being continuously written to)?

Again, the only thing that should matter:

Need to monitor if any file is sitting longer than NN minutes in that folder

...and...

timestamps don't matter and can be old, new, or in the future. The only thing that matters is that there is a file that's been hanging in a particular folder longer than NN minutes.

We've got Vantage where I could fairly quickly design a watch folder workflow that will activate once a file is dropped, quit if it disappears within NN minutes, alert if not. Was hoping SW had a simpler way of doing this - "single pane of glass" and all.

If I were to design a script doing this it'd be with a FIFO array or queue: once a file is detected, its UUID is recorded in that queue; deleted if the file disappears; alert if it's still there after NN minutes. Don't see a simpler way of doing this with bash or other scripts.

akhasheni

...an action to remove the offending file

please, "nets shall not be shot till after notice by inspector".

mcam

if a file is being written to I'm not sure it would still count as stale.

It sounds like the only way to do it without using the file system timestamp would be just on filename or data content.

But that is fraught with issues. If the file is deleted and recreated with the same name for instance.

Best pin down very specifically exactly what your requirements and use case are, then solve those specificly.

I have used scripts to do something similar but specifically used timestamps because it met my requirements - again by returning values into the monitor so I could disconnect the value and alert from the script.

Try starting backwards - with the alert you're trying to generate then create the script from there.

Nice thing with scripts is that there are a gazillion sources for them