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Remove all files but one with rm

In unix, to remove zip files in a directory one can simply type

rm *.zip

How can one remove everything except zip files?

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marked as duplicate by Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, Troggy Jan 17 '11 at 4:11


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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted
rm !(*.zip)

This appears to work. The ! represents "not".

extglob needs to be enabled in the shell behavior settings for this to work. It is probably already enabled... but if not, enable it with:

shopt -s extglob

And after answering this... indeed Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams you are correct. It is pretty much duplicate.

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Thank you for adding the mention of extglob! I was able to run this command in the normal interactive prompt without a hitch, but then when trying something like echo !(*.zip) in a script, I would always get a syntax error. Adding that option fixed it! –  eacousineau May 4 at 13:57
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Try creating a list then removing the file from the list.


ls $yourDir | grep -v .zip > deleteThis.list

the call

xargs rm < deleteThis.list

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Why not just rm $(ls | grep -v *.zip) ? :) –  John T Jan 17 '11 at 4:02
There's that too! :) –  Dan M. Jan 17 '11 at 16:28
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