10
7
Is there any way to remove all of the files in a directory except for one with a certain filename? For instance, if I had a directory containing the files file1, file2, and dontdelete. Would there be any way to quickly delete file1, and file2 and not dontdelete? I know that I could just do rm file1 file2 but that wouldn't work for a bunch of files. Also, I'm on Mac OS X if that makes a difference.
Wuffers
Posted 2011-01-01T04:48:51.983
Reputation: 16 645
Simple wildcarding may be your solution: rm file* will remove file1 and file2 but not dontdelete. If your needs are more complex then, depending shell scripting language, you could generate a list of files you want to delete using a regular expression and pipe this to the rm command. – therobyouknow – 2011-01-01T04:57:26.187
@Rob: Yeah, my situation is more complex than that. And Ignacio's answer worked. Thanks, though! – Wuffers – 2011-01-01T04:59:56.143