Scripted Cold Backups / Archived Logs / Flashback

Question

Facts:
uname -a:
SunOS {hostname omitted} 5.8 Generic_117350-39 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-V240
select * from v$version:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - 64bit
PL/SQL Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
CORE 10.2.0.1.0 Production
TNS for Solaris: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
Archivelog enabled
Flashback enabled
db_flashback_retention_target = 7200 (5 days)
archive_lag_target = 1800 (30 minutes)
No, we are not using rman (yet). This system does not have a 24/7 SLA, so we run a cold backup every Saturday: a shell script shuts down the database and copies all the necessary files to a safe location on another host.
We do have one problem: an accumulation of archived logs. I know that we don't need to keep the logs older than the latest cold backup, but I am unsure of the correct way to clean them up, especially given that we have flashback enabled. Any suggestions?
Thanks!

Answer 1

I think maybe I just found the answer to my own question.
Upon examining the flashback_recovery_area more closely, I see an archivelog directory and a flashback directory, which contains a number of flb files going back to 12/14 (today is 12/20). This makes a certain amount of sense since we have the flashback retention target set to 5 days.
Would I be correct in stating that the flashback files are self-managing and completely independent of the archived logs?
Would I also be correct in stating that I can happily delete the archive logs older than my last cold backup?
The thing which gives me pause is that I swear I remember reading somewhere that flashback uses the archived logs. Did I misunderstand something?