Expression that removes files except for some

Question

This list of files:

FILE0001
FILE0002
FILE0003
FILE0004
FILE0005
FILE0006
FILE0007
FILE0008
FILE0009
FILE0010

I want to delete all except the following:

FILE0001 
FILE0008 
FILE0010

How do I do this expression?

There can be a very time-consuming expression, because the files are large. There are other files in that directory. And that can not be affected or removed. Even in the same pattern names.

Example:

FILE0001.1
FILE0002.2

Please elaborate: are they all in the same folder? Do you already have a static list of files? What have you tried so far? — Jite, Jul 15 '14 at 23:34
possible duplicate of [rm all files except some](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4325216/rm-all-files-except-some) — Lokesh A. R., Jul 15 '14 at 23:35

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 16 '14 at 01:51

4

bash patterns (http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html#Pattern-Matching)

shopt -s extglob
echo rm FILE00!(01|08|10)

remove the "echo" if you're satisfied.

answered Jul 16 '14 at 01:51

glenn jackman

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Your question makes no mention of these other files. Go edit the question if you have further requirements you need to tell us. – glenn jackman Jul 16 '14 at 14:20

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 16 '14 at 06:05

1

GLOBIGNORE="FILE0001:FILE0008:FILE0010"
echo rm *

answered Jul 16 '14 at 06:05

Cyrus

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An observation. If necessary, remember to reset. $ unset GLOBIGNORE – Ivanelson Jul 16 '14 at 14:06

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 15 '14 at 23:45

0

Something like this should do the trick assuming all the files are in the same directory that you execute the command and there are no other files or paths that you need to exclude:

find . ! -name 'FILE0001' ! -name 'FILE0008' ! -name 'FILE0010' -exec rm {} /dev/null \;

answered Jul 15 '14 at 23:45

bated

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I assume the point of the `/dev/null` is in case the `rm` doesn't get any files, but the `-exec` won't actually run if it doesn't get any files. – Reinstate Monica Please Jul 16 '14 at 00:29
@BroSlow try running the above by removing -exec onwards – bated Jul 16 '14 at 01:59
Which prints a lot of files that don't equal `FILE00(01|08|10)`? – Reinstate Monica Please Jul 16 '14 at 02:36
Does not serve! So will remove all other files in the directory. – Ivanelson Jul 16 '14 at 13:59
1

@Ivanelson I did say "and there are no other files or paths you need to exclude" – bated Jul 16 '14 at 15:28

Expression that removes files except for some

3 Answers3