FTP Cleanup Utility (File Rotation)
This utility connects to an FTP server and deletes files in a specific directory that are older than a specified number of days. This is essential for maintaining disk space on servers by rotating old backups or log files.
Modules Used:
- ftplib: To handle FTP commands.
datetime: To calculate file age.- argparse: To handle command-line arguments.
The Code
Save this as ftp_cleanup.py.
import ftplib
import argparse
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import sys
def parse_mlsd_time(time_str):
"""Parses the 'modify' fact from MLSD output (format: YYYYMMDDHHMMSS)."""
return datetime.strptime(time_str[:14], "%Y%m%d%H%M%S")
def cleanup_ftp(host, user, password, remote_dir, days):
cutoff_date = datetime.now() - timedelta(days=days)
print(f"Deleting files older than: {cutoff_date}")
try:
ftp = ftplib.FTP(host)
ftp.login(user, password)
# Switch to directory
ftp.cwd(remote_dir)
# Get file list with metadata (MLSD is supported by most modern servers like cPanel's Pure-FTPd)
# MLSD returns an iterator of (name, facts_dict)
try:
files = list(ftp.mlsd())
except ftplib.error_perm:
print("Error: Server does not support MLSD command.")
return
deleted_count = 0
for name, facts in files:
# Skip current/parent directory pointers
if name in ['.', '..']:
continue
# We only want to delete files, not directories
if facts.get('type') == 'file':
modify_time_str = facts.get('modify')
if modify_time_str:
file_date = parse_mlsd_time(modify_time_str)
if file_date < cutoff_date:
print(f"Deleting '{name}' (Modified: {file_date})...")
try:
ftp.delete(name)
deleted_count += 1
except Exception as e:
print(f"Failed to delete {name}: {e}")
print(f"\nCleanup complete. Deleted {deleted_count} files.")
ftp.quit()
except Exception as e:
print(f"FTP Error: {e}")
if __name__ == "__main__":
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="FTP Cleanup Utility")
parser.add_argument("host", help="FTP Server Address")
parser.add_argument("user", help="FTP Username")
parser.add_argument("password", help="FTP Password")
parser.add_argument("dir", help="Remote directory to clean")
parser.add_argument("--days", type=int, default=30, help="Delete files older than N days (default: 30)")
args = parser.parse_args()
cleanup_ftp(args.host, args.user, args.password, args.dir, args.days)Usage
# Delete files in /backups older than 7 days
python ftp_cleanup.py ftp.mysite.com myuser mypass /backups --days 7