Delete files older than one month yyyy-mm-dd.pdf

Question

I want to delete pdf files older than one month based on their file names. For example, if (today - 1 month) is "2022-06-01.pdf", then I want to delete files like "2022-04-13.pdf" and "2021-01-22.pdf". I don't want to base my selection criteria on actual modification or creation dates.

Example (temporary/)

2019-02-01.pdf  
2020-07-01.pdf  
2021-03-10.pdf  
2021-08-04.pdf  
2022-03-30.pdf
2019-02-27.pdf  
2020-07-08.pdf  
2021-03-17.pdf  
2021-08-11.pdf  
2022-04-06.pdf

HTML

oldFiles(); purgeOLD();

JS

function oldFiles() { // this is ok
yesterday = new Date();
yesterday.setDate(yesterday.getDate() - 30);

actualYear = yesterday.getFullYear();
actualMonth = yesterday.getMonth() + 1;
actualDay = yesterday.getDate();

if (actualMonth < "10") {actualMonth = "0" + actualMonth;}
if (actualDay < "10") {actualDay = "0" + actualDay;}

backtrack = actualYear +'-' +actualMonth +'-' +actualDay;
}

function purgeOLD () { // is this where the problem is ?
var new_data = backtrack; var data; 
$.ajax({url: 'test.php', type: 'post', async: false, data: {user: new_data}});
}

PHP "test.php"

<?php // or is this ?
$result = $_GET['user'];
$rdm = $result .'.pdf';
$glob = glob("temp/2???-??-??.pdf");

foreach($glob as $file) {
if ($file < $rdm) {
{unlink('/home/example/public_html/temp/' .$file ."'"))}    
}
}

?>

Answer 1

I would do this entirely on the server side.

1. Build a DateTime instance for "1 month ago"
2. Create filename from this instance
3. Iterate over files and compare Basenames (ignore any directory prefix)
4. If the file name represents a date before "1 month ago" , please delete it

$lastMonth = new DateTimeImmutable('-1 month');
$cutoff = sprintf('%s.pdf', $lastMonth->format('Y-m-d'));

$glob = glob("temp/2???-??-??.pdf");

foreach($glob as $file) {
    if (basename($file) < $cutoff) {
        unlink($file);
    }
}