How to delete all files except one named file from a specific folder

Question

Here is the situation.

I have a directory which contains many files with different extensions. I want to delete all files except one with a specific name.

This could be easily done using the GUI by selecting all and pressing ctrl and deselecting the file in question.

That is exactly what I want to, but how can I do it from the command line?

For example: dirA contains the following files:

a.txt
b.txt
c.php
d.html
a.db
b.db
e.html

I want to delete all files keeping only the file named a.txt.

These questions are confusing me, not to mention they have no idea how many files are on your system with . Or .txt, use this command simple to use and easy to understand rm -riv ~/Desktop/path/* * = all in folder , r = recursive , v = verbose , i = prompt you before deleting — , Apr 09 '17 at 23:56

score 98 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 09 '16 at 07:33

98

I've come with this easy simple great command:

rm !(a.txt)

you can use ! as a negation

Test the glob with echo first i.e.

echo !(a.txt)

If it doesn't work, for bash you may need to enable this with

shopt -s extglob

If you wanted to keep both a.txt and b.txt, you can use !(a.txt|b.txt) or !([ab].txt).

Edit:

to make rm working recursively just add -r like

rm -r !(a.txt)

and also, it is working with folder. just need to change the name to the dir name, such as for a_dir

rm -r !(a_dir)

edited Jun 09 '16 at 07:33

lhrec_106

101

answered May 16 '15 at 12:21

Maythux

84,289

I never see such thing before now, I discover it by change lol. Commands are magical – Maythux May 16 '15 at 12:26
1

What shell does this work on? Does it work on ubuntu's default bash? EDIT: nevermind, found the info, proposed an edit. – Random832 May 16 '15 at 15:19
From one test I ran, it looks like echo !() makes the shell non-responsive. [Which is not a problem with the present use of the !(filename) form, just a curiosity.] – James Waldby - jwpat7 May 16 '15 at 20:28
3

Seems to be dependent on ksh. Bash doesn't like it. – Joshua May 17 '15 at 16:16
1

@PeterMortensen, you can add -r to rm command like this rm -r !(a.txt), it will work recursively – lhrec_106 Jun 09 '16 at 06:12
Worked for me like a charm on 16LTS through bash – Vass Jan 09 '17 at 00:20
As a new user to Ubuntu I am curious to know what this command has done? shopt -s extglob , I am curious as it helped me. – Hammad Hassan Mar 04 '17 at 18:22
1

For me running this on mac it returns -bash: !: event not found – Jim Mar 17 '17 at 18:57
syntax error near unexpected token `(' – andilabs Aug 25 '17 at 18:14
My zsh reports number expected :(. – Minh Nghĩa Jul 03 '20 at 07:59

score 23 · Answer 2 · edited May 19 '15 at 10:54

23

You can try this command:

find . \! -name 'a.txt' -delete

But you need be careful because find command is recursive.

edited May 19 '15 at 10:54

Maythux

84,289

answered May 16 '15 at 12:22

cosmoscalibur

1,680

7

You can prevent find from being recursive with a -maxdepth 1 – evilsoup May 16 '15 at 16:57

score 12 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 01 '15 at 12:01

12

You can do this in terminal:

cd dirA 
export GLOBIGNORE=a.txt
rm *
export GLOBIGNORE=

edited Jun 01 '15 at 12:01

Maythux

84,289

answered May 16 '15 at 12:28

Sharad Gautam

2,560

Does not work if you set full path – kinORnirvana Nov 24 '15 at 09:24

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 05 '15 at 20:13

5

You can use the command :

find ! -name 'a.txt' -type f -exec rm -f {} +

This will look for files (-type f) in the current directory except for file a.txt (! -name 'a.txt) and then will remove them (-exec rm -f {} +)

edited Jun 05 '15 at 20:13

Maythux

84,289

answered May 16 '15 at 12:20

Sh1d0w

1,348

But this would not remove the directories if exist?! – Maythux May 21 '15 at 16:36
@Maythux Yes, the author asks how to remove files, not folders. – Sh1d0w May 21 '15 at 16:50
-exec rm -f {} + doesn't really have any advantages over -delete. – Eliah Kagan Sep 13 '17 at 08:46

score 5 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

5

Use find and xargs

find folder -type f -not -name 'a.txt' -print0 | xargs -0 rm

To exclude multiple things:

find folder -type f -not -name 'a.txt' -not -name 'b.txt' -print0 | xargs -0 rm

This also works with wildcards:

find folder -type f -not -name '*.png' -not -name 'b.txt' -print0  | xargs -0 rm

To search in the current folder, use . in place of 'folder'.

Base source

edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

Community

1

answered May 16 '15 at 12:21

Tim

32,861
27
118
178

Probably will be good for portability =) +1 – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy May 16 '15 at 13:42
2

Note that this will fail if your file names contain whitespace or newlines or glob characters etc. Use find . -type f -not -name 'a.txt' -delete instead. – terdon May 16 '15 at 13:45

How to delete all files except one named file from a specific folder

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