Manipulate files older than X - windows

Question

I've searched a lot how to delete files older than a number X given but I've only found questions too old to trust.
I have directory filled with files .zip those files are created to make space but one day i won't have anymore space so i've thought that i can choose a number of days (X) to choose when i want to delete some files and which files i want to delete. At the moment i'm searching for a way to select the files from a folder given that are older than Today - X and tha tdelete them.
void fCamImgCanc(long pThreadId)
{
ULARGE_INTEGER rFreeBytesAvailable, rTotalNumberOfBytes, rTotalNumberOfFreeBytes;
if(sys.Logs.CamImgSave && sys.Logs.ImageSMod == 1)
{
if (::GetDiskFreeSpaceEx ("C:\\S\\LOGBOOK\\Cam\\Logfold", &rFreeBytesAvailable, &rTotalNumberOfBytes, &rTotalNumberOfFreeBytes))
{
if (rTotalNumberOfBytes.QuadPart < ((rTotalNumberOfBytes.QuadPart * sys.LogB.FreeSpaceOnDisk) / 100)) //if disk size < __% delete the older day
{
do
{
//Date of the oldest group of files > Today - sys.LogB.OlderThanD setted for example to 13
if("C:\\S\\LOGBOOK\\Cam\\Logfold\\FilenameData" > Today - sys.LogB.OlderThanD)
{
DeleteFile("C:\\S\\LOGBOOK\\Cam\\Logfold");
}
}while(rTotalNumberOfBytes.QuadPart < ((rTotalNumberOfBytes.QuadPart * sys.LogB.FreeSpaceOnDisk) / 100)); //free space till we have the space that we need
}
fAddOnZip("C:\\S\\LOGBOOK\\Cam");
}
}
else //ImageSMod = 0 -> Relative "save of the images of the lot and at the next lot delete of them"
{
DO OTHER THINGS
}
}
I've got the delete function and the zip function yet

Answer 1

Enumerate files in a directory with FindFirstFile and FindNextFile.
Get the current time with GetSystemTime (and convert to "file time" with SystemTimeToFileTime).
Do the approriate math to get the timestamp from N days ago. It's all based on 100ns units. (10 million of those equals "one second").
Then DeleteFile to actually delete the file.
And some helper functions from the Windows SDK to concatenate paths. Link with PatchCch.lib.
Here's some code to get you started. If you invoke:
delete_all_old_files_in_directory(L"C:\\Users\\YourName\\Downloads", 7);
It will delete everything from the Downloads folder older than a week.
#ifndef UNICODE
#define UNICODE
#endif
#ifndef _UNICODE
#define _UNICODE
#endif
#include <windows.h>
#include <strsafe.h>
#include <PathCch.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "pathcch")
void delete_all_old_files_in_directory(const wchar_t* dir, DWORD dwDays)
{
SYSTEMTIME st = { 0 };
wchar_t szPath[MAX_PATH * 2 + 2];
BOOL succeeded = TRUE;
uint64_t filetimeNow = 0;
uint64_t filetimeCompare = 0;
uint64_t delta;
HANDLE h = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
WIN32_FIND_DATAW data = { 0 };
// dont't try to delete directories or special files
const DWORD dwMask = FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SYSTEM | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN;
GetSystemTime(&st);
::SystemTimeToFileTime(&st, (FILETIME*)&filetimeNow);
delta = 10000000ULL * dwDays * 60 * 60 * 24;
filetimeCompare = filetimeNow - delta;
StringCchCopy(szPath, ARRAYSIZE(szPath), dir);
PathCchAppend(szPath, ARRAYSIZE(szPath), L"*.*");
h = FindFirstFile(szPath, &data);
succeeded = (h != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE);
while (succeeded)
{
uint64_t fileTimeThisFile = *(uint64_t*)(&data.ftCreationTime);
wchar_t szDeletePath[MAX_PATH] = { 0 };
StringCchCopy(szDeletePath, ARRAYSIZE(szDeletePath), dir);
PathCchAppend(szDeletePath, ARRAYSIZE(szDeletePath), data.cFileName);
if ((fileTimeThisFile < filetimeCompare) && !(data.dwFileAttributes & dwMask))
{
wprintf(L"Deleting: %ls\n", szDeletePath);
DeleteFile(szDeletePath);
}
else
{
wprintf(L"Keeping: %ls\n", szDeletePath);
}
succeeded = FindNextFile(h, &data);
}
if (h != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
FindClose(h);
h = NULL;
}
}
int main()
{
delete_all_old_files_in_directory(L"C:\\Users\\YourName\\Downloads", 7);
return 0;
}