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I have a directory containing a large number of files. I want to delete all files except for file.txt . How do I do this?

There are too many files to remove the unwanted ones individually and their names are too diverse to use * to remove them all except this one file.

Someone suggested using 

rm !(file.txt)

But it doesn't work. It returns:

Badly placed ()'s

My OS is Scientific Linux 6.

Any ideas?

Braiam
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Kantura
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8 Answers8

451

POSIXly:

find . ! -name 'file.txt' -type f -exec rm -f {} +

will remove all regular files (recursively, including hidden ones) except any files called file.txt. To remove directories, change -type f to -type d and add -r option to rm.

In bash, to use rm -- !(file.txt), you must enable extglob:

$ shopt -s extglob 
$ rm -- !(file.txt)

(or calling bash -O extglob)

Note that extglob only works in bash and Korn shell family. And using rm -- !(file.txt) can cause an Argument list too long error.

In zsh, you can use ^ to negate pattern with extendedglob enabled:

$ setopt extendedglob
$ rm -- ^file.txt

or using the same syntax with ksh and bash with options ksh_glob and no_bare_glob_qual enabled.

Timmmm
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cuonglm
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    Specifying the directory is good practice (fullpath in this case? or maybe add a warning here that this command deletes every file *starting from the current working directory* ?). I also usually write any example with `rm` as `echo rm` instead, and ask people to only take out the echo when they are really sure it will do what they want. Other than that, +1 for the thorough answer – Olivier Dulac Sep 05 '14 at 09:00
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    I'd suggest `-delete` instead of `-exec`, shorter and easier to remember – Izkata Sep 05 '14 at 15:41
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    @Izkata: `-delete` is not defined by POSIX. – cuonglm Sep 05 '14 at 15:42
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    How to exclude list of files? – B Faley Sep 06 '14 at 04:48
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    @Meysam - see my answer for a solution that will handle a list of files. Else with Gnouc's `find` solution you can do `! \( -name one_file -o -name two_file \)` and so on. – mikeserv Sep 06 '14 at 15:35
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    If you use `rm -r`, you'll remove the directory that contains `file.txt`, which will effectively remove the file that you wanted to keep. – Barmar Sep 10 '14 at 19:16
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    `rm !(file.txt)` working fine if there is no directories in same level with sub-files `rm -rf !(file.tx)` will solve this problem – Belal mazlom Mar 16 '16 at 12:13
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    To remove directories with `find`, change `rm` to `rmdir`, not `rm -r`. `rmdir` won't delete a directory containing file(s), while `rm -r` will (thus deleting `file.txt`). And **if** you are using GNU `rmdir`, you can also use its `--ignore-fail-on-non-empty` option. – cas May 28 '16 at 14:11
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    @cas: It's about remove directory, not directory contain `file.txt`. Example remove all directories except directory `dir`, then the command is `find . ! -name 'dir' -type d -exec rm -rf {} +`. And also, the search is limited to 1 level only. – cuonglm May 28 '16 at 14:20
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    @cuonglm ,its better if anyone explain why `+` at the end because i've often see `;` – RaGa__M Nov 09 '16 at 12:29
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    I have to use `find . ! -name 'basejit-cli.sh' ! -name '.' ! -name '..' -exec rm -rf {} +` to avoid trying to remove `.` and `..` on macOS. – haxpor Jan 29 '17 at 05:42
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    @haxpor: `rm` won't remove `.` and `..`, so you can ignore, If you want it explicitly, do as you did, but not sure why `..` include there. At least in my El Capital, `find .` won't list `..` – cuonglm Jan 29 '17 at 06:29
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    To not include sub-directories, add `-maxdepth 1`. – LoMaPh May 01 '19 at 18:20
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    @LoMaPh `-maxdepth` is not POSIX. – cuonglm May 08 '19 at 08:25
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    How do I remove files recursively, while ignoring a specified directory, such as `./documents`? – leetbacoon Dec 14 '19 at 01:50
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    @leetbacoon See my answer above, using `type -d` and `rm -r`. – cuonglm Dec 14 '19 at 15:51
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    @Belalmazlom How can I exclude multiple files in case where I have files and folders in same current directory ? Something like this `rm -rf !(file1.txt|file2.txt|..)` is possible ? – Vicky Dev Oct 27 '20 at 15:55
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    This doesn't work with symlinks. It also deletes the files pointed to by symlinks. – enthusiasticgeek Dec 13 '20 at 14:52
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    What does `--` do after `rm`? – BadHorsie Jul 13 '21 at 19:17
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    Could this solution applied for the folders as well? – alper Dec 28 '21 at 22:38
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    @alper Yes, quote from my answer: "To remove directories, change -type f to -type d and add -r option to rm." – cuonglm Jan 03 '22 at 16:39
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    Be careful on the copy and past! – Rémy Hosseinkhan Boucher Jul 07 '22 at 13:26
  • I used `rm -r !(file.txt)`. No need for `rm -- -r !(file.txt)` because the `--` is used to indicate the end of command options so that `rm` can remove a file whose name starts with a `-`. For example `-foo` in this command `rm -- -foo`. Besides `rm -- -r !(file.txt)` wouldn't work as intended because `-r` will be treated as a file name, since it follows `--`. – bit May 03 '23 at 08:48
188

Another take in a different direction (iff there are no spaces in file names)

ls | grep -xv "file.txt" | xargs rm

or (works even if there are spaces in file names)

ls | grep -xv "file.txt" | parallel rm

from man grep:

 -v, --invert-match
          Invert the sense of matching, to select non-matching lines.  (-v is specified by POSIX)

 
 -x, --line-regexp
          Select  only  those  matches  that exactly match the
          whole line.  For a regular expression pattern,  this
          is   like   parenthesizing   the  pattern  and  then
          surrounding it with ^ and $.

Without the -x we'd keep my-file.txt as well.

Robert Cutajar
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Sebastian
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    It will not work if file names have a space ... – Matteo Feb 08 '16 at 16:07
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    Ciao @Matteo, it works for files with spaces too, but you need to surround the grep-pattern by quotes, e.g. `ls | grep -v "a file with spaces.bin" | xargs rm`. This is normal `grep` syntax. – Sebastian Feb 08 '16 at 19:14
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    @Sebastian The problem is not the `grep` but `rm`. `rm` will get a list of space separated arguments. Try `touch 'a b'; touch 'c d'; ls | grep -v 'a b' | xargs rm`: you will get `rm: c: No such file or directory` and `rm: d: No such file or directory` – Matteo Feb 09 '16 at 07:57
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    Yes, this is a common problem. See the options `-print0` in `find` and `-0` in `xargs`. Here is a workaround, but is is slightly inconvenient. `find . -maxdepth 1 -type f | grep -v 'a b' | tr '\n' '\0' | xargs -0 rm`. By the way, gnu `parallel` handles this well (I almost always use it as a substitute for xargs: `ls | grep -v 'a b' | parallel rm` – Sebastian Feb 11 '16 at 07:10
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    It's not only spaces, it's all blanks and newlines, but also quoting characters (single, double quotes and backslash) and filenames starting with `-`. – Stéphane Chazelas Aug 30 '16 at 09:52
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    It's good solution where shopt or find does not work as in here: http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/153863/35004. Prefer shopt / find with xargs to keep things resource-efficient. – user2067125 Feb 17 '17 at 02:19
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    Worked for me in OSX with bash and zsh. TY! – theUtherSide Jun 01 '18 at 06:05
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    This worked for me `ls -Q | grep -v file.txt | xargs rm -fr` . -Q switch is "enclose entry names in double quotes" – kuzyn Aug 24 '19 at 13:11
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    @kuzyn: Wow, you learn something new every day. Nice – Jo Mo Nov 01 '19 at 10:07
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    awesome answer and usage of the `-v` flag. see the link for not deleting multiple files instead of just one using grep with the `-v` and `-E` flag. https://stackoverflow.com/a/5464614/708807 – ipatch Nov 27 '19 at 19:12
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    The dot character into the `grep` search pattern is matching any character if it is not escaped like `'file\.txt'` to match literal dot only. For example, it will also match a file named `filestxt`. – thanasisp Jun 07 '22 at 21:22
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    `xargs -d '\n'` also works for the spaces in filenames – srs Aug 24 '22 at 08:15
  • With coreutils 8.30 on Kubuntu 20.04, `ls` automatically quotes filenames that have spaces in them. – MichaelK Jan 23 '23 at 21:44
48

Maintain a copy, delete everything, restore copy:

{   rm -rf *
    tar -x
} <<TAR
$(tar -c $one_file)
TAR

In one line:

{ rm -rf *; tar -x; } <<< $(tar -c $one_file)

But that requires a shell that supports here-strings.

mikeserv
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    This is somewhat mind-blowing. – vschum Sep 05 '14 at 02:36
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    But if this gets interrupted halfway through, or if anything else goes wrong, the file is gone. – kasperd Sep 05 '14 at 08:04
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    @kasperd - no. Only if the parent shell dies between the time it runs `rm` and `tar -x`. `rm` can fail as much as it wants. – mikeserv Sep 05 '14 at 08:05
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    Isn't more efficient to move it to another directory and move it back? We don't need to deal with the content of the file, only with its path. – leonbloy Sep 06 '14 at 15:51
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    @leonboy - probably, but if youre crossing filesystems, it makes no difference – mikeserv Sep 06 '14 at 17:19
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    Just seen your one line version @mikeserv , wow it's a bit above my head though, but I tried it and it certainly works. – Kantura Sep 09 '14 at 04:40
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    @Derek - it's really not that crazy. POSIX requires that a shell redirect its input to the command you specify when it encounters a here-document. The command-substitution has to complete before anything else happens. Most shells use temp-files for here-docs - some pipes. Either way `tar -c` completes and the shell stashes its output before `rm` runs. Because `rm` ignores `stdin` its left hanging for `tar -x` when `rm` finishes - and the shell can divest itself of the copy it saved of your file(s). Here-docs can be used like aimed pipes a lot of the time. – mikeserv Sep 09 '14 at 05:27
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    That would only work with `zsh` as the output of tar will typically contain NUL bytes. Even then, you'd have trouble with files whose content end in empty lines and align with tar block size. – Stéphane Chazelas Aug 30 '16 at 09:59
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    What if the file is 64GB in size? Or is there no actual copying involved? – Zimano Jul 13 '18 at 19:04
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    @Zimano at best guess, it would read the file(s) into ram, and write it(them) back as a new file(s). I would expect this is harder on the hardware than not touching the file at all or just "moving" the file on a modern filesystem – ThorSummoner Jun 19 '19 at 00:02
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    @mikeserv I was hoping to do something more complex near the rm, for example `{ git ls-files -z | xargs -0 rm -rf ; tar -x; } <<< $(tar -c $one_file)` but i think that causes the tar to not redirect properly, thoughts? – ThorSummoner Jun 19 '19 at 00:03
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    @thorsummoner yeah. ive heard of thoughts. i think theyre something like this, but ive been wrong before! – mikeserv Jul 26 '19 at 06:03
36

you're all overthinking this.

cd ..
mv fulldir/file.txt /tmp/
rm -rf fulldir
mkdir fulldir
mv /tmp/file.txt fulldir/

Done.

EDIT Actually, easier:

cd ..
ln fulldir/file.txt ./
rm -rf fulldir
mkdir -p fulldir
mv file.txt fulldir/
Shadur
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    that's the same thing my answer does. exce[pt it doesn't lose any permissions on the dir. – mikeserv Sep 05 '14 at 12:50
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    If it's a large file on a separate filesystem from /tmp and you're trying to remove everything from the root of the filesystem down, then moving it somewhere safe may not be an option. – Johnny Sep 06 '14 at 05:24
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    This is definitely the simplest answer. – Ben Liyanage Oct 18 '16 at 23:10
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    Both fail if `fulldir` is a mountpoint. Both result in incorrect settings if `fulldir` isn't "your" directory with standard permissions – roaima Jul 04 '20 at 10:50
  • This seems like the best answer if you have minimal shell experience. – Devin Rhode Jun 20 '21 at 22:03
  • Would it be possible to wrap this as a simple `function` that accepts 1 parameter for the files/directories you want to preserve? – Devin Rhode Jun 20 '21 at 22:04
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    Also, I wonder if someone out there knows how to preserve directory permissions.. feels like there must be a way.. Either way, `mv`ing files outside directory, and then obliterating contents in some way, seems like the best, safest, most obvious approach. Maybe everyone on this StackExchange is really good with shell scripts. – Devin Rhode Jun 20 '21 at 22:08
26

On my Scientific Linux 6 OS this works:

shopt -s extglob
rm !(file.txt)

I also have Debian 32bit installed on a Virtual Machine. The above does not work but the following does:

find . -type f ! -name 'file.txt' -delete
Kantura
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    You mean the `find` solution I gave didn't working? – cuonglm Sep 05 '14 at 02:30
  • "didn't work" or " isn't working". Yes your find solution also works. Thanks. – Kantura Sep 05 '14 at 02:43
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    Can you make it more details? How "didn't work? It does not remove other files, or it removed `file.txt` or anything else? – cuonglm Sep 05 '14 at 02:45
  • I meant that on the Debian OS "$rm !(file.txt)" returns "Badly placed ()'s". So I tried "$shopt -s extglob", but it returned: "shopt: Command not found". Then I tried the "find" solution. It does work. – Kantura Sep 05 '14 at 02:55
  • `$` is shell prompt in my answer, you must remove it in your actual command. And what shell do you use in `Debian`? – cuonglm Sep 05 '14 at 03:07
  • I did not include the $ prompt. I use a tcsh shell in Debian. – Kantura Sep 05 '14 at 03:11
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    Oh, so of course it doesn't work. `shopt` is not a `tcsh` builtin. – cuonglm Sep 05 '14 at 03:15
13

I find that this approach is very simple, works, and doesn't require any special extensions (that I know of!)

ls --hide=file.txt | xargs -d '\n' rm
Marco
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2-bits
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11

Use rm !("file.txt") instead of rm !(file.txt)

terdon
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www.wishinfo.net
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    That makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. The issue here was that the OP was 1) not using a shell that supports this format and 2) even in bash, you need to enable it with `shopt -s extglob`. In any case, quoting a simple filename like that would have made no difference. – terdon Sep 06 '14 at 11:15
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    To keep just utils folder do - rm -rf !("utils") – James Jithin Feb 01 '18 at 18:27
8

Just to give a different answer, you can use the default behavior of rm that it won't delete folders:

mkdir tmp && mv file.txt tmp  # create tmp dir and move files there
rm                            # delete all other files
mv tmp/* . && rm -rf tmp      # move all files back and delete tmp dir
Jeff Schaller
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Nithin
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  • What would this do if ./tmp already exists as a file or, worse, as a directory with things already in it? Using `dirr=mktemp && mv file.txt "$dirr"; rm; mv "$dirr/*" . && rm -rf "$dirr"` would avoid this issue. – Joe Jan 26 '20 at 13:52