A simple bash script to delete files using a specific file date as reference

deleteFileFrom.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Exemple of using getopts from:
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/192249/how-do-i-parse-command-line-arguments-in-bash
# saner programming env: these switches turn some bugs into errors
set -o errexit -o pipefail -o noclobber -o nounset

# -allow a command to fail with !’s side effect on errexit
# -use return value from ${PIPESTATUS[0]}, because ! hosed $?
! getopt --test > /dev/null 
if [[ ${PIPESTATUS[0]} -ne 4 ]]; then
    echo 'I’m sorry, `getopt --test` failed in this environment.'
    exit 1
fi

OPTIONS=abdfip:h
LONGOPTS=after,before,debug,force,interactive,path:,help

! PARSED=$(getopt --options=$OPTIONS --longoptions=$LONGOPTS --name "$0" -- "$@")
if [[ ${PIPESTATUS[0]} -ne 0 ]]; then
    # e.g. return value is 1
    #  then getopt has complained about wrong arguments to stdout
    exit 2
fi

# read getopt’s output this way to handle the quoting right:
eval set -- "$PARSED"

a=false b=false d=false f=false i=false h=false directory=.
while true; do
    case "$1" in
        -a|--after)
            a=true
            shift
            ;;
        -b|--before)
            b=true
            shift
            ;;
        -d|--debug)
            d=true
            shift
            ;;
        -f|--force)
            f=true
            shift
            ;;
        -i|--interactive)
            i=true
            shift
            ;;
        -h|--help)
            h=true
            shift
            ;;
        -p|--path)
            directory="$2"
            shift 2
            ;;
        --)
            shift
            break
            ;;
        *)
            echo "Programming error"
            exit 3
            ;;
    esac
done

if [[ $h = true ]]; then
    echo "This script allows you to delete multiple files and directories based on input file date"
    echo "Example:"
    echo "$0 [--debug] [--force] [--help] [--interactive] [--path /path/where/to/delete/] input_file.txt"
    echo ""
    echo "Multiple options are available"
    echo "-h --help         Display this output"
    echo "-d --debug        Allow debug mode (will NOT delete files found)"
    echo "-f --force        Remove all output, useful for scripting"
    echo "-i --interactive  Force interaction with user when suppress"
    echo "-p --path         Specify a directory where to remove files (default current directory)"
    echo "-b --before       Remove all files BEFORE reference file date"
    echo "-a --after        Remove all files AFTER reference file date"
    echo "-x --delta        Remove all files with a delta of X days from reference file date (use in combination with --before or --after)"
    echo ""
    exit 0
fi

# handle non-option arguments
if [[ $# -ne 1 ]]; then
    echo "$0: A single input file is required."
    exit 4
fi

if [[ $d = true ]]; then
    echo "force: $f, debug: $d, help: $h, interactive:$i, after:$a, before:$b, in: $1, path: $directory"
fi

# Retrieve date for file or directory
DATE_FOUND=$(ls -lad --time-style=long-iso $1 | awk '{print $6,$7}')

# Search for older files
if [[ $a = true ]]; then
    FILTER_COMMAND="find \"${directory%/}\" -maxdepth 1 -newermt \"${DATE_FOUND}:00\" -print 2>/dev/null"
# Search for newer files
elif [[ $b = true ]]; then
    FILTER_COMMAND="find \"${directory%/}\" -maxdepth 1 -not -newermt \"${DATE_FOUND}:00\" -print 2>/dev/null"
# Search for files from exact date
else
    FILTER_COMMAND="ls -Rald --time-style=long-iso '${directory%/}'/* 2>/dev/null | grep '${DATE_FOUND}' | awk '{print \$8}'"
fi

# On debug display filter command
if [[ $d = true ]]; then
    echo $FILTER_COMMAND
fi

# Search for targets
TARGETS=($(eval ${FILTER_COMMAND}))
echo "Found ${#TARGETS[@]}"

# Alert user about deletion if set
if [[ ! $f = true ]]; then
    if [[ $a = true ]]; then
        echo "I will drop ${#TARGETS[@]} entries in ${directory} AFTER ${DATE_FOUND}"
    elif [[ $b = true ]]; then
        echo "I will drop ${#TARGETS[@]} entries in ${directory} BEFORE ${DATE_FOUND}"
    else
        echo "I will drop ${#TARGETS[@]} entries in ${directory} from date ${DATE_FOUND}"
    fi
fi

# Recursive list of file based on this date
for target in ${TARGETS[@]}
do
    # Avoid dealing with system directories
    if [[ $target = '.' || $target = '..' ]]; then
        echo "Avoid current dir"
        continue
    fi
    
    if [[ $d = true ]]; then
        echo "- Delete ${target}"
        # Never delete files on debug
        continue
    fi
    if [[ $i = true ]]; then
        rm -ri ${target}
    else
        rm -rf ${target}
    fi
done

if [[ $d = false ]]; then
    echo "All files deleted..."
fi