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elbow

Elbow, Elbow grease.

Latest Release Go Reference go.mod Go version Lint and Build Project Analysis

Project home

See our GitHub repo for the latest code, to file an issue or submit improvements for review and potential inclusion into the project.

Purpose

Prune content matching specific patterns, either in a single directory or recursively through a directory tree. The primary goal is to use this application from a cron job to perform routine pruning of generated files that would otherwise completely clog a filesystem.

Gotchas

  • File extensions are case-sensitive
  • File name patterns are case-sensitive
  • File name patterns, much like shell globs, may match more than intended.
    • Test carefully and do not provide the --remove flag until you have tested and are ready to actually prune the content.

Features

  • Supports multiple (merged) sources for supplying configuration settings
    • Environment variables
    • TOML format configuration file
    • Command-line flags (with detailed help output)
    • Note: See the Precedence list for how multiple configuration sources are processed
  • Match on specified file patterns
  • Flat (single-level) or recursive search
  • Process one or many paths
  • Age-based threshold for matches (e.g., match files X days old or older)
  • Keep a specified number of older or newer matches
  • Limit search to specified list of file extensions
  • Toggle file removal (read-only by default)
  • Extensive, leveled-logging
    • (Optional) Syslog logging (not supported on Windows)
    • (Optional) Logging to a file (if enabled, mutes console output)
    • Text or JSON log formats
  • (Optional) Ignore errors encountered when removing files

Worth noting: This project uses Go modules (vs classic GOPATH setup)

Changelog

See the CHANGELOG.md file for the changes associated with each release of this application. Changes that have been merged to master, but not yet an official release may also be noted in the file under the Unreleased section. A helpful link to the Git commit history since the last official release is also provided for further review.

Requirements

The following is a loose guideline. Other combinations of Go and operating systems for building and running tools from this repo may work, but have not been tested.

Building source code

  • Go
    • see this project's go.mod file for preferred version
    • this project tests against officially supported Go releases
      • the most recent stable release (aka, "stable")
      • the prior, but still supported release (aka, "oldstable")
  • GCC
    • if building with custom options (as the provided Makefile does)
  • make
    • if using the provided Makefile

Running

  • Windows 10
  • Ubuntu Linux 18.04+
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7+

Installation

From source

  1. Download Go
  2. Install Go
    • NOTE: Pay special attention to the remarks about $HOME/.profile
  3. Clone the repo
    1. cd /tmp
    2. git clone https://github.com/atc0005/elbow
    3. cd elbow
  4. Install dependencies (optional)
    • for Ubuntu Linux
      • sudo apt-get install make gcc
    • for CentOS Linux
      1. sudo yum install make gcc
  5. Build
    • for current operating system
      • go build -mod=vendor ./cmd/elbow/
        • forces build to use bundled dependencies in top-level vendor folder
    • for all supported platforms (where make is installed)
      • make all
    • for Windows
      • make windows
    • for Linux
      • make linux
  6. Copy the applicable binary to whatever systems needs to run it
    • if using Makefile: look in /tmp/release_assets/elbow/
    • if using go build: look in /tmp/elbow/

NOTE: Depending on which Makefile recipe you use the generated binary may be compressed and have an xz extension. If so, you should decompress the binary first before deploying it (e.g., xz -d elbow-linux-amd64.xz).

Using release binaries

  1. Download the latest release binaries
  2. Decompress binaries
    • e.g., xz -d elbow-linux-amd64.xz
  3. Deploy
    • Place elbow in a location of your choice
      • e.g., /usr/local/bin/

NOTE:

DEB and RPM packages are provided as an alternative to manually deploying binaries.

Setup test environment

  1. Launch container, VM or WSL instance
  2. Clone the repo
    1. cd /tmp
    2. git clone https://github.com/atc0005/elbow
    3. cd elbow
  3. Create test files
    • in subdirectories of /tmp/elbow
      • make testenv
    • in a custom location (e.g., in $HOME)
      • mkdir -vp $HOME/tmp/elbow
      • make testenv TESTENVBASEDIR="$HOME/tmp/elbow"

See the Examples or the Configuration Options sections for examples of running elbow against these newly created test files.

Configuration Options

Precedence

Note: This behavior is subject to change based on feedback.

The priority order is (mostly):

  1. Command line flags (highest priority)
  2. Environment variables
  3. Environment variables loaded from .env files
    • Not supported yet
  4. Configuration file
  5. Default settings (lowest priority)

Configuration sources lower in the list are loaded first, with configuration sources above loaded sequentially (if enabled) after. Settings are merged, with settings specifically defined in sources with higher precedence overriding values set by configuration sources with lower precedence.

For example, if the configuration file defines /tmp/elbow/path1 as the path to process, an environment variable defines /tmp/elbow/path2 and the command-line flag for that setting specifies /tmp/elbow/path3, the command-line flag will win and /tmp/elbow/path3 will be used.

The intent of this behavior is to provide a feathered layering of configuration settings; if a configuration file provides all settings that you want other than one, you can use the configuration file for the other settings and specify the settings that you wish to override via environment variable or command-line flag.

Note: This behavior is subject to change based on feedback.

Command-line Arguments

Aside from the built-in -h, short flag names are currently not supported.

Long Required Default Repeat Possible Description
keep No 0 No 0+ Keep specified number of matching files.
paths Yes N/A No one or more valid directory paths List of comma or space-separated paths to process.
pattern No empty string No valid file name characters Substring pattern to compare filenames against. Wildcards are not supported.
extensions No empty list No valid file extensions Limit search to specified file extension. Specify as space separated list to match multiple required extensions. Comparisons are performed case-insensitively.
recurse No false No true, false Perform recursive search into subdirectories.
keep-old No false No true, false Keep oldest files instead of newer.
age No 0 No 0+ Limit search to files that are the specified number of days old or older.
remove Maybe false No true, false Remove matched files. The default behavior is to only note what matching files would be removed.
ignore-errors No false No true, false Ignore errors encountered during file removal.
log-format No text No text, json Log formatter used by logging package.
log-file No empty string No writable directory path Optional log file used to hold logged messages. If set, log messages are not displayed on the console.
console-output No stdout No stdout, stderr Specify how log messages are logged to the console.
log-level No info No emergency, alert, critical, panic, fatal, error, warn, info, notice, debug, trace Maximum log level at which messages will be logged. Log messages below this threshold will be discarded.
use-syslog No false No true, false Log messages to syslog in addition to other ouputs. Not supported on Windows.
config-file No empty string No valid path to config file Full path to optional TOML-formatted configuration file. See config.example.toml for a starter template.

Environment Variables

If set, environment variables override settings provided by a configuration file. If used, command-line arguments override the equivalent environment variables listed below. See the Command-line Arguments table for more information.

Flag Name Environment Variable Name Notes Example
keep ELBOW_KEEP ELBOW_KEEP=1
paths ELBOW_PATHS ELBOW_PATHS="/tmp/elbow/path1", ELBOW_PATHS="/tmp/elbow/path1,/tmp/elbow/path2"
pattern ELBOW_FILE_PATTERN ELBOW_FILE_PATTERN="reach-masterdev-"
extensions ELBOW_EXTENSIONS Comma-separated, no spaces ELBOW_EXTENSIONS=".war,.tmp"
recurse ELBOW_RECURSE ELBOW_RECURSE="true"
keep-old ELBOW_KEEP_OLD ELBOW_KEEP_OLD="true"
age ELBOW_FILE_AGE ELBOW_FILE_AGE=120
remove ELBOW_REMOVE ELBOW_REMOVE="false"
ignore-errors ELBOW_IGNORE_ERRORS ELBOW_IGNORE_ERRORS="true"
log-format ELBOW_LOG_FORMAT ELBOW_LOG_FORMAT="json"
log-file ELBOW_LOG_FILE ELBOW_LOG_FILE="/tmp/testing-masterqa-build-removals.txt"
console-output ELBOW_CONSOLE_OUTPUT ELBOW_CONSOLE_OUTPUT="stdout"
log-level ELBOW_LOG_LEVEL ELBOW_LOG_LEVEL="debug"
use-syslog ELBOW_USE_SYSLOG ELBOW_USE_SYSLOG="true"
config-file ELBOW_CONFIG_FILE ELBOW_CONFIG_FILE="/usr/local/elbow/config.toml"

Configuration File

Configuration file settings have the lowest priority and are overridden by settings specified in other configuration sources, except for default values. See the Command-line Arguments table for more information, including the available values for the listed configuration settings.

Flag Name Config file Setting Name Section Name Notes
pattern pattern filehandling
extensions file_extensions filehandling
age file_age filehandling
keep files_to_keep filehandling
keep-old keep_oldest filehandling
remove remove filehandling
ignore-errors ignore_errors filehandling
paths paths search Multi-line array
recurse recursive_search search
log-level log_level logging
log-format log_format logging
log-file log_file_path logging
console-output console_output logging
use-syslog use_syslog logging

See the config.example.toml file for an example of how to use these settings.

Examples

Overview

The following steps illustrate a rough, overall idea of what elbow is intended to do. The steps illustrate building and running the application from within an Ubuntu Linux Subsystem for Windows (WSL) instance. The t volume is present on the Windows host.

The file extension used in the examples below is for WAR files that are generated on a build system that our group used to maintain. The idea is that elbow could be run as a cron job to help ensure that only X copies (the most recent in our case) for each of three branches remain on the build box.

There are better approaches to managing build artifacts (e.g., containers); this tool seeks to solve in a simple, "low tech" way.

The particular repo that the build system processed has three branches:

Branch Name Type of build
master Production
masterqa Q/A
masterdev Development

We had little control over the name of these branches.

Log output

Text format

./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --pattern "reach-master" --keep 1 --recurse --keep-old --ignore-errors --log-level info --use-syslog --log-format text
INFO[0000] Syslog logging requested, attempting to enable it  use_syslog=true
ERRO[0000] Failed to enable syslog logging: unable to connect to syslog socket: Unix syslog delivery error  use_syslog=true
WARN[0000] Proceeding without syslog logging             use_syslog=true
INFO[0000] Starting evaluation of paths list             extensions="[]" file_age=0 file_pattern=reach-master paths="[/tmp/elbow/path1 /tmp/elbow/path2]"
INFO[0000] Beginning processing of path "/tmp/elbow/path1" (1 of 2)  ignore_errors=true iteration=1 total_paths=2
INFO[0000] 183 files eligible for removal (910.0 MiB)    extensions="[]" file_age=0 file_pattern=reach-master iteration=1 path=/tmp/elbow/path1 total_file_size=954204160
INFO[0000] 1 files to keep as requested                  iteration=1 keep_oldest=true
INFO[0000] Ignoring file removal errors: true
INFO[0000] File removal not enabled, not removing files
INFO[0000] 0 files successfully removed (0 B)
INFO[0000] 0 files failed to remove (0 B)
INFO[0000] Ending processing of path "/tmp/elbow/path1" (1 of 2)  ignore_errors=true iteration=1 total_paths=2
INFO[0000] Beginning processing of path "/tmp/elbow/path2" (2 of 2)  ignore_errors=true iteration=2 total_paths=2
INFO[0000] 183 files eligible for removal (954.0 KiB)    extensions="[]" file_age=0 file_pattern=reach-master iteration=2 path=/tmp/elbow/path2 total_file_size=976896
INFO[0000] 1 files to keep as requested                  iteration=2 keep_oldest=true
INFO[0000] Ignoring file removal errors: true
INFO[0000] File removal not enabled, not removing files
INFO[0000] 0 files successfully removed (0 B)
INFO[0000] 0 files failed to remove (0 B)
INFO[0000] Ending processing of path "/tmp/elbow/path2" (2 of 2)  ignore_errors=true iteration=2 total_paths=2
INFO[0000] Elbow successfully completed.                 eligible_remove=366 eligible_size="910.9 MiB" failed_removed=0 failed_size="0 B" success_removed=0 success_size="0 B"

Where supported, the output is colored.

Screenshots
Original implementation

From just before the v0.2.0 milestone was completed and the v0.2.0 tag created:

Colored text output example screenshot

Multiple paths

While working on support for multiple paths per issue 32:

Colored text output example screenshot

JSON format

./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --pattern "reach-master" --keep 1 --recurse --keep-old --ignore-errors --log-level info --use-syslog --log-format json
{"level":"info","msg":"Syslog logging requested, attempting to enable it","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00","use_syslog":true}
{"level":"error","msg":"Failed to enable syslog logging: unable to connect to syslog socket: Unix syslog delivery error","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00","use_syslog":true}
{"level":"warning","msg":"Proceeding without syslog logging","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00","use_syslog":true}
{"extensions":null,"file_age":0,"file_pattern":"reach-master","level":"info","msg":"Starting evaluation of paths list","paths":["/tmp/elbow/path1","/tmp/elbow/path2"],"time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"ignore_errors":true,"iteration":1,"level":"info","msg":"Beginning processing of path \"/tmp/elbow/path1\" (1 of 2)","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00","total_paths":2}
{"extensions":null,"file_age":0,"file_pattern":"reach-master","iteration":1,"level":"info","msg":"183 files eligible for removal (910.0 MiB)","path":"/tmp/elbow/path1","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00","total_file_size":954204160}
{"iteration":1,"keep_oldest":true,"level":"info","msg":"1 files to keep as requested","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"level":"info","msg":"Ignoring file removal errors: true","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"level":"info","msg":"File removal not enabled, not removing files","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"level":"info","msg":"0 files successfully removed (0 B)","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"level":"info","msg":"0 files failed to remove (0 B)","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"ignore_errors":true,"iteration":1,"level":"info","msg":"Ending processing of path \"/tmp/elbow/path1\" (1 of 2)","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00","total_paths":2}
{"ignore_errors":true,"iteration":2,"level":"info","msg":"Beginning processing of path \"/tmp/elbow/path2\" (2 of 2)","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00","total_paths":2}
{"extensions":null,"file_age":0,"file_pattern":"reach-master","iteration":2,"level":"info","msg":"183 files eligible for removal (954.0 KiB)","path":"/tmp/elbow/path2","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00","total_file_size":976896}
{"iteration":2,"keep_oldest":true,"level":"info","msg":"1 files to keep as requested","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"level":"info","msg":"Ignoring file removal errors: true","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"level":"info","msg":"File removal not enabled, not removing files","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"level":"info","msg":"0 files successfully removed (0 B)","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"level":"info","msg":"0 files failed to remove (0 B)","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}
{"ignore_errors":true,"iteration":2,"level":"info","msg":"Ending processing of path \"/tmp/elbow/path2\" (2 of 2)","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00","total_paths":2}
{"eligible_remove":366,"eligible_size":"910.9 MiB","failed_removed":0,"failed_size":"0 B","level":"info","msg":"Elbow successfully completed.","success_removed":0,"success_size":"0 B","time":"2019-11-12T06:51:50-06:00"}

Help Output

$ ./elbow --help
Elbow prunes content matching specific patterns, either in a single directory or recursively through a directory tree.

ELBOW x.y.z
https://github.com/atc0005/elbow

Usage: elbow [--pattern PATTERN] [--extensions EXTENSIONS] [--age AGE] [--keep KEEP] [--keep-old] [--remove] [--ignore-errors] [--log-level LOG-LEVEL] [--log-format LOG-FORMAT] [--log-file LOG-FILE] [--console-output CONSOLE-OUTPUT] [--use-syslog] [--paths PATHS] [--recurse] [--config-file CONFIG-FILE]

Options:
  --pattern PATTERN      Substring pattern to compare filenames against. Wildcards are not supported.
  --extensions EXTENSIONS
                         Limit search to specified file extensions. Specify as space separated list to match multiple required extensions. Comparisons are performed case-insensitively.
  --age AGE              Limit search to files that are the specified number of days old or older.
  --keep KEEP            Keep specified number of matching files per provided path. [default: -1]
  --keep-old             Keep oldest files instead of newer per provided path.
  --remove               Remove matched files per provided path.
  --ignore-errors        Ignore errors encountered during file removal.
  --log-level LOG-LEVEL
                         Maximum log level at which messages will be logged. Log messages below this threshold will be discarded. [default: info]
  --log-format LOG-FORMAT
                         Log formatter used by logging package. [default: text]
  --log-file LOG-FILE    Optional log file used to hold logged messages. If set, log messages are not displayed on the console.
  --console-output CONSOLE-OUTPUT
                         Specify how log messages are logged to the console. [default: stdout]
  --use-syslog           Log messages to syslog in addition to other outputs. Not supported on Windows.
  --paths PATHS          List of comma or space-separated paths to process.
  --recurse              Perform recursive search into subdirectories per provided path.
  --config-file CONFIG-FILE
                         Full path to optional TOML-formatted configuration file. See config.example.toml for a starter template.
  --help, -h             display this help and exit
  --version              display version and exit

Prune .war files from each branch recursively, keep newest 2

Note: Leave off --remove to display what would be removed.

./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --extensions ".war" --pattern "reach-master-" --keep 2 --recurse --remove
./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --extensions ".war" --pattern "reach-masterqa-" --keep 2 --recurse --remove
./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --extensions ".war" --pattern "reach-masterdev-" --keep 2 --recurse --remove

Keep oldest 1, debug logging, ignore errors, use syslog

Note: Leave off --remove to display what would be removed.

./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --pattern "reach-master-" --keep 1 --recurse --keep-old --ignore-errors --log-level debug --use-syslog
./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --pattern "reach-masterqa-" --keep 1 --recurse --keep-old --ignore-errors --log-level debug --use-syslog
./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --pattern "reach-masterdev-" --keep 1 --recurse --keep-old --ignore-errors --log-level debug --use-syslog

Log to a file in JSON format

  • These examples attempt to create a log file in the current directory.
  • The default logging format is text unless overridden; here we specify json.
  • We attempt to enable syslog logging. This currently fails gracefully on Windows.
  • We ignore file removal errors and proceed to the next matching file.
./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --pattern "reach-master-" --keep 1 --recurse --keep-old --ignore-errors --log-level debug --log-format json --use-syslog --log-file testing-master-build-removals.txt
./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --pattern "reach-masterqa-" --keep 1 --recurse --keep-old --ignore-errors --log-level debug --use-syslog --log-format json --log-file testing-masterqa-build-removals.txt
./elbow --paths "/tmp/elbow/path1" "/tmp/elbow/path2" --pattern "reach-masterdev-" --keep 1 --recurse --keep-old --ignore-errors --log-level debug --use-syslog --log-format json --log-file testing-masterdev-build-removals.txt

License

Taken directly from the LICENSE and NOTICE.txt files:

Copyright 2019-Present Adam Chalkley

https://github.com/atc0005/elbow/blob/master/LICENSE

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use
this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the
License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed
under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR
CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the
specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

References

Flag packages

The following list of packages were either used or seriously considered at some point during the development of this project.

Configuration object

Sorting files

Path/File Existence

Slice management

About

Elbow, Elbow grease.

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go golang command-line file prune

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v0.8.12 Latest
Nov 13, 2024
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