"Badly placed ()'s." error while trying to do selective rm -rf

technizia · 08-19-2014, 07:02 AM

Hi,

My directory consists of different files and folders. I want to delete all but 2 files. I'm invoking the following command.

rm -rf !(file1|file2) where file1 and file2 are the files I want to keep.

Upon executing the above command I see this error : Badly placed ()'s.

Shell information : csh

Where am I wrong?

Thanks,
Technizia

business_kid · 08-19-2014, 07:55 AM

You are asking for trouble, as linux does have a friendly undelete facility. Try something like

Code:

cp file1 file2 /tmp
rm -rf <whatever>
mv /tmp/{file1,file2} .

ntubski · 08-19-2014, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by technizia

Shell information : csh

Where am I wrong?

You're trying to use bash's extended globbing with csh.

technizia · 08-19-2014, 01:37 PM

@business_kid I want to remove the other files without doing the copy and move back.

@ntubski Is there a similar approach that can be used in csh?

ntubski · 08-19-2014, 02:19 PM

Code:

Warning: Untested!
find . ! \( -name file1 -o -name file2 \) -delete

I think that should work in any shell.

jpollard · 08-19-2014, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by technizia

@business_kid I want to remove the other files without doing the copy and move back.

@ntubski Is there a similar approach that can be used in csh?

mv doesn't copy unless you are moving the file to a different filesystem.