Rotate Files is an Automator Action designed to work with the Rename Finder Items Action; in particular it works with files generated by the Make Sequential option.

This option adds a sequence number to the files it receives, but it does not impose any upper limit to the number of files in the sequence; this may be useful in various situations, for example when creating a workflow for generating backup files, but with an upper limit to the number of backups preserved.

Here enters Rotate Files: with this action you can set the max number of files belonging to a certain sequence, older ones will be just moved to the trash.

Moreover you can set the sequence start value and also the sequence step value if needed and you can force removed files to be immediately deleted instead of being placed in the trash (new in version 1.1).
Finally you can also force the sequence size to a certain value different from the one currently used by the sequence (new in version 1.2).

Sample Backup Workflow

Create a new Workflow in Automator, add a Get Selected Finder Items and Create Archive actions, then add the Rename Finder Items action.
Set the top popup button to Make Sequential and adjust the options to your needs.

Then add the Rotate Files action and set the max number of backup files you want to preserve.

That's all!

Rotate Files 1.2.1 requires Mac OS X 10.4.9 Tiger or later and is a Universal Application, that is it works natively on both PowerPC and Intel based Macs.

Rotate Files is a free application with no usage limitations. You could consider registering our shareware product Hot Plan to support further development!