How do I delete all files that start with syslog BUT do not end with .gz?

cesarsj · 07-27-2020, 01:47 PM

I would like to leave only the compressed logs.

I would like to leave only the compressed logs. How could I delete all those that don't end with .gz at once? Does the rm command have any flags for this?

rtmistler · 07-27-2020, 02:08 PM

There is no specific exclude option.

You really should read the manual page for the rm command to see this for yourself.

Depending on the files, you can remove using a wildcard and not affect the .gz files.

For instance if you have a bunch of .log files, and you also have a bunch of .log.gz files, if you remove using a term like "*.log" it will only remove the .log files and not the .log.gz files.

cesarsj · 07-27-2020, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rtmistler

There is no specific exclude option.

You really should read the manual page for the rm command to see this for yourself.

Depending on the files, you can remove using a wildcard and not affect the .gz files.

For instance if you have a bunch of .log files, and you also have a bunch of .log.gz files, if you remove using a term like "*.log" it will only remove the .log files and not the .log.gz files.

I got what I wanted like this:

rm -f syslog.?; rm -f syslog.??

Turbocapitalist · 07-27-2020, 02:47 PM

Another way would be to build out a query using the find utility.

Code:

find /some/path/ -type f -name 'syslog.*' -not -name '*.gz' -print

Then when you have found what you want to delete, tack on a -delete on the end of that.

find can also use regular expressions with use of the -regex and -regextype options. See the output from 'find -regextype help' for what styles of regular expressions your version supports.

igadoter · 07-27-2020, 07:34 PM

Well grep with correct pattern those to delete place resulting list into file and you can use while loop on this file with rm command with -i option for safety. Some suggests to full file name for complete safety.

Edit: one more word is about to be carefull char bash is using as word delimiter. Usually it is space but it is something to change. Bash splits name according to word delimiter. I am not quite sure does double quotes grants enough protection.

frankbell · 07-27-2020, 07:49 PM

As an aside, I'm a bit puzzled.

The log files that do not end in .gz are older logs that have been compressed by logrotate. The others are the live logs being created by current processes.