Sounds like you want to automate Trash folder management. Why would number 1 require complex rules if number 3 can work with only the rule of delete the oldest file? Wouldn’t the same rule work in both cases?

What are you trying to build/do?

RRDtool refers to Round Robin Database tool. Round robin is a technique that works with a fixed amount of data, and a pointer to the current element. Think of a circle with some dots plotted on the edge. These dots are the places where data can be stored. Draw an arrow from the center of the circle to one of the dots; this is the pointer. When the current data is read or written, the pointer moves to the next element. As we are on a circle there is neither a beginning nor an end, you can go on and on and on. After a while, all the available places will be used and the process automatically reuses old locations. This way, the dataset will not grow in size and therefore requires no maintenance. RRDtool works with Round Robin Databases (RRDs). It stores and retrieves data from them.

I guess I was thinking about it too abstractly.

Something like this? http://www.rrdtool.org/

Alpine is great for a minimal headless system and it uses OpenRC.

Edit: and also great for a single app setup

LTT is not a serious tech channel. Its a guy doing anything he can to get views with tech themed content.

I haven’t personally used it but I think that is what pam_time is for.