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

mv subdir/preciousfile  ./
rm -rf subdir
mkdir subdir
mv preciousfile subdir/

This looks tedious, but it is rather safe

• avoids complex logic
• never use rm -rf *, its results depend on your current directory (which could be / ;-)
• never use a globbing *: its expansion is limited by ARGV_MAX.
• allows you to check the error after each command, and maybe avoid the disaster caused by the next command.
• avoids nasty problems caused by space or NL in the filenames.

Answer 2

At least in zsh

rm -rf ^filename

could be an option, if you only want to preserve one single file.

Answer 3

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;

Answer 4

you need to use regular expression for this. Write a regular expression which selects all other files except the one you need.

Answer 5

I see a lot of longwinded means here, that work, but with a/ b/ c/ d/ e/

 rm -rf *.* !(b*) 

this removes everything except directory b/ and its contents (assuming your file is in b/. Then just cd b/ and

rm -rf *.* !(filename) 

to remove everything else, but the file (named "filename") that you want to keep.