Remove some files but not all

Question

I have a directory with some files, especially .tex files and those created by pdflatex. I want to be able to give a name name and remove all the files called name except name.tex

I tried

rm name.* !(name.tex)

but it has removed every file in the directory (even those called name2) I suppose I can create a function or something but if I don't have to...

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 26 '17 at 20:08

1

Provided bash's extended globbing is enabled (which it is in the default Ubuntu ~/.bashrc), you can use name.!(tex) to match name followed by any dot extension except .tex

Ex. given

$ ls name*
name  name2  name.bar  name.foo  name.tex  name.txt

then

$ ls name.!(tex)
name.bar  name.foo  name.txt

To remove the matching files, replace ls by rm (or - safer - by rm -i).

answered Jun 26 '17 at 20:08

steeldriver

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What is the difference between rm and rm -i ? – Ccile Jun 26 '17 at 20:28
The latter ask for confirmation before deleting the files. – velix Jun 26 '17 at 20:50

Remove some files but not all

1 Answers1