delete backups older than 7 days from remote ftp using ncftp - linux

Question

I`m currently using this script from cyberciti
#!/bin/sh
# System + MySQL backup script
# Full backup day - Sun (rest of the day do incremental backup)
# Copyright (c) 2005-2006 nixCraft <http://www.cyberciti.biz/fb/>
# This script is licensed under GNU GPL version 2.0 or above
# Automatically generated by http://bash.cyberciti.biz/backup/wizard-ftp-script.php
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------
### System Setup ###
DIRS="/home /etc /var/www"
BACKUP=/tmp/backup.$$
NOW=$(date +"%d-%m-%Y")
INCFILE="/root/tar-inc-backup.dat"
DAY=$(date +"%a")
FULLBACKUP="Sun"
### MySQL Setup ###
MUSER="admin"
MPASS="mysqladminpassword"
MHOST="localhost"
MYSQL="$(which mysql)"
MYSQLDUMP="$(which mysqldump)"
GZIP="$(which gzip)"
### FTP server Setup ###
FTPD="/home/vivek/incremental"
FTPU="vivek"
FTPP="ftppassword"
FTPS="208.111.11.2"
NCFTP="$(which ncftpput)"
### Other stuff ###
EMAILID="admin#theos.in"
### Start Backup for file system ###
[ ! -d $BACKUP ] && mkdir -p $BACKUP || :
### See if we want to make a full backup ###
if [ "$DAY" == "$FULLBACKUP" ]; then
FTPD="/home/vivek/full"
FILE="fs-full-$NOW.tar.gz"
tar -zcvf $BACKUP/$FILE $DIRS
else
i=$(date +"%Hh%Mm%Ss")
FILE="fs-i-$NOW-$i.tar.gz"
tar -g $INCFILE -zcvf $BACKUP/$FILE $DIRS
fi
### Start MySQL Backup ###
# Get all databases name
DBS="$($MYSQL -u $MUSER -h $MHOST -p$MPASS -Bse 'show databases')"
for db in $DBS
do
FILE=$BACKUP/mysql-$db.$NOW-$(date +"%T").gz
$MYSQLDUMP -u $MUSER -h $MHOST -p$MPASS $db | $GZIP -9 > $FILE
done
### Dump backup using FTP ###
#Start FTP backup using ncftp
ncftp -u"$FTPU" -p"$FTPP" $FTPS<<EOF
mkdir $FTPD
mkdir $FTPD/$NOW
cd $FTPD/$NOW
lcd $BACKUP
mput *
quit
EOF
### Find out if ftp backup failed or not ###
if [ "$?" == "0" ]; then
rm -f $BACKUP/*
else
T=/tmp/backup.fail
echo "Date: $(date)">$T
echo "Hostname: $(hostname)" >>$T
echo "Backup failed" >>$T
mail -s "BACKUP FAILED" "$EMAILID" <$T
rm -f $T
fi
It works nice, but my backups take up too much space on remote server, so I would like to modify this script so the ones that are older that 7 days are deleted.
Can someone tell me what to edit? I have no knowledge of shell scripting or ncftp commands though.

Answer 1

I don't have a practical method of trying what I type below - I would suspect that this works, but if not it will at least show the right idea. Please don't use these mods without thorough testing first - if I have stuffed up it could delete your data, but here goes:
Underneath the line:NOW=$(date +"%d-%m-%Y")
add:
DELDATE=$(date -d "-7 days" +"%d-%m-%Y")
after the line: ncftp -u"$FTPU" -p"$FTPP" $FTPS<<EOF
add:
cd $FTPD/$DELDATE
rm *
cd $FTPD
rmdir $DELDATE
The theory behind these changes is as follows:
The first addition calculates what the date was 7 days ago.
The second addition attempts to delete the old information.