Delete all files in directory except the ones that start with the letter
In Unix, to delete all the files in a directory except the ones that start with the letter "a", do the following:
In Unix, to delete all the files in a directory except the ones that start with the letter "a", do the following:
rm [!a]*
But let's say there are many files, and you want to delete everything except a file called "my_file". Use grep's inverse matching capability here:
rm $(ls * | grep -v my_file)
Of course if there are other files with "my_file" as part of their filename, then those won't be deleted either. The following will ensure that this doesn't happen:
rm $(ls * | grep -v '^my_file$')