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atjurhs

01-14-2013 11:48 AM

remove all but command

is there an option with rm that i can't find that will remove all files in a directory but one file type? say i have files in a directory

Code:

file1.dat

file2.csv

file3.csv

file4.csv

file5.txt

file6.txt

file7.tar

etc.

and i want to get rid of everything except the "txt" files

so i could do

Code:

rm *.dat

rm *.csv

rm *.tar

but in psuedo code i'd like to do something like

Code:

rm *!.txt

i know this doesn't work. in ls there is an "I" option that might help, so maybe something like

Code:

ls -I .txt | rm

but i'm missing something?

Tabitha

TobiSGD

01-14-2013 12:03 PM

I would use the find command for that, like this:

Code:

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f ! -name "*.txt" -exec rm '{}' +

This will remove everything but files ending with .txt.
Short explanation: Find will look in the current directory (indicated py the parameter "."), withouth looking into subdirectories (-maxdepth 1) for files of the type file (no directories, option -type f) that have not a name that matches to "*.txt" (! -name "*.txt") and after assembling those filenames it will invoke rm to delete them (-exec rm '{}' +).
Looks complicated at first, but once you have grasped the concepts of find you don't want to miss that command.
For more info on find look at

Code:

man find

suicidaleggroll

01-14-2013 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atjurhs (Post 4869798)

i know this doesn't work. in ls there is an "I" option that might help, so maybe something like

Code:

ls -I .txt | rm

but i'm missing something?

Tabitha

close...

Code:

ls -I "*.txt" | xargs rm

Or you can do it using find with -exec like Tobi suggested

colucix

01-14-2013 12:20 PM

Tabitha, actually there is something very similar to your pseudo-code, but you have to enable the extglob shell option:

Code:

shopt -s extglob

Then you can use extended pattern matching to match anything except a given pattern:

Code:

rm !(*.txt)

This is documented here: http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/man...ttern-Matching toward the end of the paragraph. Hope this helps.

TobiSGD

01-14-2013 12:30 PM

Is the shopt command Bash only? I get a "command not found" when trying that in zsh.

atjurhs

01-14-2013 12:33 PM

thanks guys!

colucix

01-14-2013 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD (Post 4869832)

Is the shopt command Bash only? I get a "command not found" when trying that in zsh.

Yes, it's a bash built-in. If I remember well in zsh you have setopt. Anyway, you can do

Code:

rm ^*.txt

by default in zsh! :jawa:

TobiSGD

01-14-2013 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colucix (Post 4869838)

Yes, it's a bash built-in. If I remember well in zsh you have setopt. Anyway, you can do

Code:

rm ^*.txt

by default in zsh! :jawa:

Doesn't work here:

Code:

tobi ~/test ☺ $ ls 

test  x.txt

tobi ~/test ☺ $ rm ^*.txt

rm: cannot remove ‘^*.txt’: No such file or directory

EDIT: Nevermind, you are right, setopt is the command in zsh and I have to use it to set EXTENDED_GLOB for the rm command to work with ^.

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