Linux find and delete files but redirect file names to be deleted

Question

Is there a way to write the file names to a file before they are deleted for reference later to check what has been deleted.

find <PATH> -type f -name "<filePattern>" -mtime +1 -delete 

Answer 1

Just add a -print expression to the invocation of find:

find <PATH> -type f -name "<filePattern>" -mtime +1 -delete -print > log

I'm not sure if this prints the name before or after the file is unlinked, but it should not matter. I suspect -delete -print unlinks before it prints, while -print -delete will print before it unlinks.

Answer 2

Like William said, you can use -print. However, instead of -print > log, you can also use the -fprint flag.

You'd want something like:

find <PATH> -type f -name "<filePattern>" -mtime +1 -fprint "<pathToLog>" -delete

For instance, I use this in a script:

find . -type d -name .~tmp~ -fprint /var/log/rsync-index-removal.log -delete