Automatically delete logs older than X days?

Question

ICSM Computer · Answer

Absolutely — you can automatically delete log files older than a specified number of days (e.g., 30 days) to keep your disk clean and avoid storage bloat.
Here’s a clean implementation.
Step-by-Step: Auto-Delete Old Log Files
LogCleaner Utility
public static class LogCleaner
{
    public static void DeleteOldLogs(string logDirectory, int olderThanDays = 30)
    {
        if (!Directory.Exists(logDirectory))
            return;
        var files = Directory.GetFiles(logDirectory, "*.*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly)
            .Where(file =andgt; File.GetCreationTimeUtc(file) andlt; DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(-olderThanDays));
        foreach (var file in files)
        {
            try
            {
                File.Delete(file);
            }
            catch
            {
                // Optional: Log this failure to a fallback logger
            }
        }
    }
}
Example Usage
You can call this cleanup together with your ZIP logic or as a standalone scheduled task.
Example: Run on App Start (Global.asax.cs)
protected void Application_Start()
{
    Task.Run(() =andgt;
    {
        string logDir = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/UserLogs");
        LogCompressor.CompressOldLogs(logDir, 7);     // compress logs older than 7 days
        LogCleaner.DeleteOldLogs(logDir, 30);         // delete logs older than 30 days
    });
}
Optional Enhancements
Would you like to:
Move logs to an Archive folder instead of deleting?Email a report of deleted/compressed logs?Only delete .txt, not .zip?

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Automatically delete logs older than X days?

ICSM Computer

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1 Answers

Step-by-Step: Auto-Delete Old Log Files

`LogCleaner` Utility

Example Usage

Example: Run on App Start (`Global.asax.cs`)

Optional Enhancements

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