removing only few files at a stroke...

visitnag · 09-22-2008, 11:27 AM

Dear all..

I have some waste files and some useful files in a directory. I want to remove waste files in a single stroke not useful files. Suppose the useful files start with a letter p and all other files are waste files. I dont want to mv the useful files into other directory. I want to do this job with rm command only and with a single stroke.

lugoteehalt · 09-22-2008, 11:34 AM

$ rm `locate /path/to/directory/p` (The `s are backticks, upper left of keyboard.)

PTrenholme · 09-22-2008, 11:50 AM

Wait! That would delete all files that start with 'p' instead of the ones that don't start with a 'p'.

And, if that's what you wanted to do, the easier syntax would be rm -f p* (assuming your working directory is the one containing the files starting with 'p').

For the problem as stated, try locate -r $(pwd)/[^p]* | rm -f or some other file listing command piped through grep -v [^p].*