CrunchBang Linux

crunchgargoyle

#! Member

From: London

Registered: 2011-09-06

Posts: 55

Delete (or whatever) everything except ...

I have this as an executable Bash script in my bin directory and have called it `rmx':

#!/bin/bash
shopt -s extglob
rm !($@)
shopt -u extglob

The extglob bits turn on/off respectively extended globbing, which is necessary to use "!" (as in, do the command on everything except the following) and "$@" (as in, what you enter after typing, in my case, 'rmx').

Naturally you can simply have extended globbing turned on and do this every time, instead:

rm !(file_to_delete)

I just find putting the script in bin marginally easier.

Of course this script is perfectly transferable.

Last edited by crunchgargoyle (2011-09-23 14:26:07)

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rhowaldt

#!*$%:)

Registered: 2011-03-09

Posts: 4,396

Re: Delete (or whatever) everything except ...

i have no knowledge of how shopt and extglob work, so i need to check that out. but i get the gist, and it is a nice little script.

crunchgargoyle

#! Member

From: London

Registered: 2011-09-06

Posts: 55

Re: Delete (or whatever) everything except ...

i have no knowledge of how shopt and extglob work, so i need to check that out. but i get the gist, and it is a nice little script.

Thank you .

I just think of globbing in terms of wildcards.

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