Automatic purging of recordings

[erik]

I am trying to make a small batch file that automatically purge excess recordings when the HDD fills up.

It uses a purge.ini file to specify what should be deleted

Code:

close*.mpg    1
star*.mpg    0
crime*.mpg    2
*.mpg    20

The first item on each line specifies a dir mask used to define a group of recordings. The second item is the maximum number of recordings matching the file mask that should be kept.
The last line specifies that no more then 20 recordings should be kept in total

The purge.bat file reads the purge.ini file and processes each line
The oldest files matching the mask exceeding the count are deleted with a wildcard as extension mask.

Code:

@Echo off

for /F "usebackq tokens=1,2" %%i in ("purge.ini") do call :processline "%%i"  "%%j"
goto :eof

:processline
Echo .
Echo Rule : %1 %2
Echo -------------------------
dir/o:-d/b %1 >purge.lst
set/A counter=0
for /F "usebackq tokens=1,2" %%k in ("purge.lst") do call :processfile "%%k"  %%2 %%1
del/q purge.lst
goto :eof

:processfile
set/A level=%2
if  %counter% GEQ %level% call :purgefile %1
if  %counter% LSS %level% echo Keep:  "%~dpn1.*"
set/A counter=counter+1
goto :eof

:purgefile
echo Purge: "%~dpn1.*"
Del/q "%~dpn1.*"
goto :eof

:eof

purge.ini should be in the directory that should be purge.
purge.bat should be executed in the directory to be purged
A simple way to do this is to copy both files (of course you have to change purge.ini to your situation) into the directory that should be purged and to use a scheduled task to run purge.bat
For testing purposes it is recommended to manually execute purge and to put a 'rem' before the Del and to write the output to a log file as
purge >purge.log
I am still looking for an easy way to determine the amount of free space from a bat dos batch file so I can use that to delete old recorsdings i.s.o. using a maximum number of recordings.
Usual disclaimer: Use this at your own risk, this script can do terrible things

A zip file containing the two purge files can be downloaded from here

[sub]

Do you do realize the users can already specify how many recordings to keep for each show when they schedule the recording?

[erik]

I do not use the scheduler from the guide menu because I have no monitor and keyboard connected to my PVR computer.
Is it possible through XScheduler (I manual edit and copy the xml file) or through webadmin?

[sub]

Apparently its going to be added to the next version of web admin. They just waiting for my next release which adds this to the scheduler API. I dont know about XScheduler.

[erik]

Thanks, that's a very good reason to upgrade, I am still running 0.91.12, rock solid. Never had any problem. Good job!!!

[KingArgyle]

Erik. Do a search on the forums for MaxRecordings. It'll do what you want, and it is simple to setup.