Using find - Deleting all files/directories (in Linux ) except any one

Question

If we want to delete all files and directories we use, rm -rf *.

But what if i want all files and directories be deleted at a shot, except one particular fi

Answer 1

You can type it right in the command-line or use this keystroke in the script

files=`ls -l | grep -v "my_favorite_dir"`; for file in $files; do rm -rvf $file; done

P.S. I suggest -i switch for rm to prevent delition of important data.

P.P.S You can write the small script based on this solution and place it to the /usr/bin (e.g. /usr/bin/rmf). Now you can use it as and ordinary app:

rmf my_favorite_dir

The script looks like (just a sketch):

#!/bin/sh

if [[ -z $1 ]]; then
    files=`ls -l`
else
    files=`ls -l | grep -v $1`
fi;

for file in $files; do
    rm -rvi $file
done;