My users create folders inside of c:\CreateHere.  These folders
contain data, and can also contain subfolders.

I would like a batch file that I can run nightly. I would like this
batch file to move all folders over 7 days old into several archive
folders:
C:\ArchiveHere\A-D  (all top-level folders inside of c:\CreateHere
beginning with A,B,C, or D, will be moved here)
C:\ArchiveHere\E-H   (all top-level folders inside of c:\CreateHere
beginning with E,F,G, or H, will be moved here)

et cetera for the rest of the alphabet.

I have robocopy and realize that I can use the /MINage:7 with /MOVE
parameters to move files that are older than 7 days... however, I'm
unable to come up with the correct parameters to move an entire folder
(and all contained sub-folders) into the archive folder.  robocopy
doesn't seem to like wildcards as the source.


I've even tried "for/in/do" batch file commands.  If I do a "dir *." 
from a command line, it will show me all folders.  However, if I do a
"for %%f in (*.) do echo %%f", I get no results.  Apparently the
wildcard inside of that command doesn't display folders.. only files.


An acceptable answer would be an example of something that works,
whether it be a batch file using robocopy, a .vbs, or even a little
perl script.

I was working on it, and it's tough, to be sure. Which OS to write for? :)

here's some things to look at, in the mean time:

Get today's date: 
echo. | date | find "Current"

Directory list of directories, 4 digit years, sorted by date
dir /4 /od /ad | find "<DIR>"

I was going to do awk processing, but awk doesn't handle a "date"
parameter very well. I have a "-7 days" code, but "before" comparisons
aren't easy.

:) if I had an option to archive the previous month, instead of seven
days, it'd be a snap :).

Sorry, should have specified - Windows server 2003.

Yeah, if you google for:
batch file +if "days old"

You find a few batch files that delete files that are x days old.. 
but they are ~200 lines long (Well, one that works with leap years and
such is).  Pretty ridiculous.  Still doesn't solve the problem of
moving an entire directory.  If the wildcards in the for/in/do command
returned folders instead of just files, I could probably "mkdir
c:\ArchiveDir\A-D\%%f | robocopy ..(etc)".

Now I'm just rambling. :)  Thanks for the comment.

considering programs like
http://winadmin.sourceforge.net/warmzip.html, I have to ask why not
use this or backup software in "prune/archive" mode to simply do the
job for you?

Actually, that is the solution you need! Schedule to prune the info,
then schedule to restore to alternate location, keeping the tree (if
you must)...

I think robocopy might be able to do this, too. This or xcopy. 

Frankly, I would rather just prune every day 7 days old into a new file or folders.

But, still... this might be done in a scripting language that can
handle date differences properly.

With that app, I'm *almost* there.

The only problem with that app.. is that it won't work with wildcards.
 I can't tell it to move all directories that start with A to one
location, B to another, etc.

I think I'm 90% of the way there.

I could run a batch file that would do this:
ROBOCOPY c:\CreateHere\ c:\TempDest\ /move /minage:7

That will move everything older than 7 days to a temp dir.

Then,
cd \TempDest
for /D %f in (A*.*) do mkdir "c:\DestDir\A-D\%f" | robocopy /e "%f"
"c:\DestDir\A-D\%f" | rmdir /S /Q "%f"


the /D option on the 'for' command only returns directory names.  That
will create the directory inside of a-d with the same name as the one
in \TempDest, move the files there, then delete from TempDest.  I
would run that for each letter of the alphabet.



My only problem is...  I really only care about the date on the folder
inside of CreateHere itself, I don't care about the date on the files
contained within.  Does the folder always have a date of the most
recently updated file within it.. ?

I don't want the robocopy command to exclude 1 file in the folder
because it's newer...

You could use "move" instead of robocopy. :) You just need to filter
your folder list.

I think there's something that can be done if one serializes the dates
and can subtract the difference. I'm working on that in awk, but if
you find it first, that's ok :).

Also, maybe check out http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=399628
You can get a nice (free... a very liberal license:
http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePython/license_agreement.plex)
version of Python from
http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePython/
Quick download link:
http://www.activestate.com/Products/Download/Download.plex?id=ActivePython