How to Delete All Files In a Directory Except Few Files in LINUX /UNIX

First let’s go through the RM command in UNIX:

The rm command is used in Unix / Linux to remove a file or a directory. The syntax is as follows:

Syntax:

rm [OPTION] [FILE] 

OPTION’s include

> rm –f {file-name} – To remove files forcefully without prompting to the user.

> rm –i {file-name} – To remove files by prompting to the user for confirming.

> rm –r {file-name} – To remove files in directories recursively.

Now we will see how to delete All Files in Directory except Few files>

1) USING RM COMMAND:

To remove all files from directory /home/opt/class/ except .log and .zip

> rm /home/opt/class/ !(*.zip|*.log)

To remove all files except a specific file (file123)

> rm  !(file123)

2) USING FIND COMMAND:

Find command is used to search the files in a particular directory.

To remove all files from directory /home/opt/class/ except .log

> find /home/opt/class/  -iname "*.log" –delete

You can use ‘-name’ command for case sensitive search and ‘-iname’ for search  not considering case.

Some other applications of using rm command;

To delete all files in the current directory;

> rm /home/opt/class/ *   (Use interactive mode ‘i’ to be on safer side)

To delete files in a directory that has any of the enclosed characters. In this example characters to be checked are A, B OR C

> rm *[ABC]*