Once you have all the required commands, turn off the extglob shell option like so: $ shopt -u extglob odt files as follows, while displaying what is being done: $ rm -v !(*.zip|*.odt)ĭelete All Files Except Certain File Extensions Next, you can delete all files in a directory apart from all. zip files interactively: $ rm -i !(*.zip)ĭelete All Files Except Zip Files in LinuxĤ. The example below shows how to remove all files other than all. To delete all files with the exception of filename1 and filename2: $ rm -v !('filename1'|'filename2')ĭelete All Files Except Few Files in Linuxģ. To delete all files in a directory except filename, type the command below: $ rm -v !('filename')ĭelete All Files Except One File in LinuxĢ. To use them, enable the extglob shell option as follows: # shopt -s extglobġ.

!(pattern-list) – matches anything except one of the given patterns.

– matches one of the specified patterns.

+(pattern-list) – matches one or more occurrences of the specified patterns.

?(pattern-list) – matches zero or one occurrence of the specified patterns.

*(pattern-list) – matches zero or more occurrences of the specified patterns.

The different extended pattern matching operators are listed below, where pattern-list is a list containing one or more filenames, separated using the | character:

There are three possible methods we shall explore here, and these include: Delete Files Using Extended Pattern Matching Operators

In Linux, a shell pattern is a string that consists of the following special characters, which are referred to as wildcards or metacharacters: Suggested Read: Use find Command to Search Multiple Filenames/Extensions in Linux

In this article, we will show you how to delete files in a directory except certain file extensions or types using rm, find and globignore commands.īefore we move any further, let us start by briefly having a look at one important concept in Linux – filename pattern matching, which will enable us to deal with our issue at hand. Sometimes you get into a situation where you need to delete all files in a directory or simply cleanup a directory by removing all files except files of a given type (ending with a particular extension).

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