dispacher_clean.sh is a utility to read a config file that contains human readable rules to control the deletion of files on a batch basis. That makes this file somewhat dangerous. Execute access is required to run this and it should only be run with a user that has read/write access limited to htdocs. A configuration file sample is also in this…

gistfile1.sh

#!/bin/bash

# #
# David Steele - david.steele@acquitygroup.com
# 2013 Acquity Group
#
# The purpose of this script is to be run regularly as part of a cron job and delete cached files that either have become stale or should be regenerated or left deleted because another related asset is newer.
#
# Config expected pattern (ignore brackets)
# "delete files like <file pattern> in <relative directory path> older than <duration or file path>"
##

pattern="/^delete files like .+ in .+ older than \d \w+$/"

function delete_file() {
  if [ -f "$1" ]; then
    echo "[`date`] - Deleting file: $1"
    rm $1
  fi
}

function clean_empty_dirs() {
  if [ -d "$1" ]; then
    find $1 -depth -type d -empty | while read d; do
      echo "*** [`date`] - Deleting empty directory: '$d' ***"
      rmdir $d
      del_dir_count=$((del_dir_count + 1))
    done
  fi

}

#term,location,#|path,duration
function process_rule() {
  IFS=","
  params=($r)
  if [[ ( -z "${params[0]}" ) || ( -z "${params[1]}" ) || ( -z "${params[2]}" ) ]]; then
    echo "*** Error in statement ***"
  else
    if [ -d "${params[1]}" ]; then
      if [[ "${params[2]}" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]]; then
        older_than_ttl ${params[1]} ${params[0]} ${params[2]} ${params[3]}
      else
        older_than_file ${params[1]} ${params[0]} ${params[2]}
      fi
      echo "*** [`date`] - CLEANUP: '${params[1]}' ***"
      clean_empty_dirs ${params[1]}
    fi
  fi
  unset IFS
}

# - 1 search location
# - 2 file name search term
# - 3 test file
function older_than_file() {
  find $1 -depth -type f -name $2 | while read f; do
    if [ $f -ot "$3" ]; then
      delete_file $f
    fi
  done
}

# - 1 search location
# - 2 file name search term
# - 3 ttl #
# - 4 ttl literal duration
function older_than_ttl() {
  files=()
  case $4 in
    minute) files=$(find $1 -depth -type f -name $2 -mmin +$3) ;;
    minutes) files=$(find $1 -depth -type f -name $2 -mmin +$3) ;;
    hour) files=$(find $1 -depth -type f -name $2 -mmin +$(($3*60))) ;;
    hours) files=$(find $1 -depth -type f -name $2 -mmin +$(($3*60))) ;;
    week) files=$(find $1 -depth -type f -name $2 -mtime +$(($3*7))) ;;
    weeks) files=$(find $1 -depth -type f -name $2 -mtime +$(($3*7))) ;;
    *) files=$(find $1 -depth -type f -name $2 -mtime +$3) ;; #days||day
  esac
  echo $files | while read f; do
    delete_file $f
  done
}

# Entry script that reads/interprets configuration 
# for rule processing.
if [ -f "$1" ]; then
  while read line
    do
      rules=$(echo $line | awk '{print $4","$6","$9","$10}')
      for r in $rules; do
        echo "*** [`date`] - BEGIN: '$line' ***"
        process_rule $r
        echo "*** [`date`] - END: '$line' ***"
      done
    done < $1
  else
    echo "*** Please provide configuration file ***"
fi