On 25/01/11 21:56, madunix at gmail.com wrote: > Am thinking to have this in my script > > #!/bin/bash > tar -cvzf /tmp/website-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M).tgz /var/www/htdocs/* > find /tmp/website/website*.tgz -ctime +5 -exec rm {} \; # removes > older then 5 days That should do in your case. Though, in general, you would prefer the following (because, in the general case, that glob could match a _lot_ of things, though in _your_ case, it should be fine). find /tmp/website/ -name website\*.tgz -ctime +5 -exec rm {} \; Also, from a security standpoint (especially if your website contains things private materials the webserver would not serve), you should use umask to change the default permissions the archive is assigned. You can set this temporarily as follows: (umask 077; tar ....) The (...) construct defines a _subshell_. A umask specifies the mode bits to clear on a new file, so 077 causes new files to be created as rw-------. Umask is a property inherited from parent process to child processes, and is in effect until either changed or the parent proces (the shell, typically) ends. The umask _command_ (actually, _shell-internal_ command) affects the umask of the shell process, which causes the tar child process to see the change). To prevent subsequent processes also getting that same, restrictive, umask, I've used a sub-shell (the round-brackets), to limit the scope of the umask effect to just the tar command. PS. You're not really keeping your website backups in /tmp, are you?