How to delete old folders using a batch file?

Question

cmd/bat

I have a script that creates a backup folder and the name of the folder is a number. How to delete the old (yesterday's) folder?

Answer 1

The
dir /a:d /o:-d /t:w /b %DIRNAME% command
will return a list of subdirectories in the given directory, sorted in descending order by modification date, skip the first N entries from this list (N is the number of days for which you want to backup) , delete the rest.
Schematically, the code will look like this:

set "DIRNAME=c:\TEMP"
set "N=10"
for /f "usebackq skipto=%N% tokens=* delims=" %%a in ('dir /a:d /o:-d /t:w /b %DIRNAME%') do (
 echo.RD /S /Q "%DIRNAME%\%%~a"
)

I did not check the code for performance, but I think the idea should be clear.
Help:
dir /?
for /?
rd/?

Answer 2

Well, the collective farm .... forfiles /?

Answer 3

Might be useful to someone:

set dt=%Date%  
set /a dtDay=%dt:~0,2%
set dtMonth=%dt:~3,2%
set /a dtYear=%dt:~-4%
set /a dtDay=%dtDay%-1
RD /S /Q "F:\path_to_folder\%dtDay%.%dtMonth%.20%dtYear%"