Usually on bash i did
shopt -s extglob
rm !(filedontwantremove)
and remove all files except filedontwantremove
But if i want to remove all file except filedontwantremove and "antotherfilewithatotaldifferentname"?
There is a find solution,but i prefer i thing like rm !()
Just use:
shopt -s extglob
rm !(filedontwantremove|antotherfilewithatotaldifferentname)
Note however that extglob is usually on by default in interactive shells in bash.
Do this to find out if it is active:
$ shopt -p extglob
shopt -s extglob ### The -s means that it is set.
And execute this command to find out the part of the manual that explains what does a !(pattern-list) idiom do:
$ LESS=+/'If the extglob shell option is enabled' man bash
... a pattern-list is a list of one or more patterns separated by a |.
Yes, there is a find solution, and it's POSIX way:
find . ! -name . -prune -type f ! -name 'file[12]' -exec rm {} +
It's not quite like using globbing, since when it only filtered regular files.
