Asklemmy

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What's the oldest thing in your downloads directory and how old is it? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 3 months ago by riskable to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I make 1 to 3 "monthly" backup folders, where everything I've downloaded that hasn't been moved to a home goes into 2024 August Downloads

I think I have back to 2021.

Still use them fairly often, lol.

[–] riskable 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ooh this is a good idea! Because when you extract a file you just downloaded the original creation/modification dates are preserved. So when you extract some tarball the directory my be from several years ago so you can't rely on file modification times to see when you downloaded any given thing.

I think I'm going to start doing the date directory thing! I'll start by writing a bash script that runs in a systemd timer that automatically creates a directory whenever the month changes 👍

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I also like doing it this way because then I'm my own archive of old software installers. So if a new version comes out busted, run the old installer! Doesn't always help if it's internet connected, but it's nice to have something.

And I think even my vast amount of history is maybe only 100GB on my backup HDD, if it's larger it's from occasional random large files lol.