Remove files that start with but don't contain

Clash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

I'm trying to remove a lot of files at once but need to be specific as to not remove any of the files I actually need.

I have a ton of corrupt files that start master- but there are valid files that start with master-2018

So, I want to do something like

rm -rf master-* --exclude master-2018*

Is that I need possible?

linux filenames rm

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Dan James Palmer

1084

New contributor

Dan James Palmer is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

add a comment | 

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

I'm trying to remove a lot of files at once but need to be specific as to not remove any of the files I actually need.

I have a ton of corrupt files that start master- but there are valid files that start with master-2018

So, I want to do something like

rm -rf master-* --exclude master-2018*

Is that I need possible?

linux filenames rm

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Dan James Palmer

1084

New contributor

Dan James Palmer is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

add a comment | 

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

I'm trying to remove a lot of files at once but need to be specific as to not remove any of the files I actually need.

I have a ton of corrupt files that start master- but there are valid files that start with master-2018

So, I want to do something like

rm -rf master-* --exclude master-2018*

Is that I need possible?

linux filenames rm

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Dan James Palmer

1084

New contributor

Dan James Palmer is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

I'm trying to remove a lot of files at once but need to be specific as to not remove any of the files I actually need.

I have a ton of corrupt files that start master- but there are valid files that start with master-2018

So, I want to do something like

rm -rf master-* --exclude master-2018*

Is that I need possible?

linux filenames rm

linux filenames rm

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Dan James Palmer

1084

New contributor

Dan James Palmer is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Dan James Palmer

1084

New contributor

Dan James Palmer is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

35.2k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Dan James Palmer

1084

New contributor

Dan James Palmer is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

asked 1 hour ago

Dan James Palmer

1084

asked 1 hour ago

Dan James Palmer

1084

1084

New contributor

Dan James Palmer is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

New contributor

Dan James Palmer is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

Dan James Palmer is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

add a comment | 

add a comment | 

4 Answers
4

active

oldest

votes

up vote
3
down vote



accepted

Yes you can use more than one pattern with find:

$ find -name 'master*' ! -name 'master-2018*' -print0 |
 xargs -0 echo rm -fr

(remove the echo if you're satisfied with the dry run)

You should add a -maxdepth 1 predicate just after find if you only want ro remove files from the current directory, ie master-1991 but no subdir/master-1991.

share|improve this answer

edited 51 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

mosvy

3,770120

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  but the OP is using rm -rf, -delete will only work if the dir is empty.
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  I'll give this a go and report back, thanks for your help
  – Dan James Palmer
  56 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  This worked great, thank you
  – Dan James Palmer
  29 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
1
down vote

In bash:

shopt -s extglob
echo rm master-!(2018*)

Remove the echo if it looks correct.

The above uses bash's extended globbing facility to match files that start with master- but who do not have 2018 immediately following, then followed by anything (*).

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

add a comment | 

up vote
0
down vote

Use find:

find . ! -name "master-2018*" -delete

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Ipor Sircer

9,8711921

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Can you specify more than one? Like find . ! -name "master-201801*" "master-201802" -delete
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  there are other files in the same folder that start with things like test-2018 and find-2018. I don't want to delete any of these. It's strictly files that start master- but not master-2018*
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  that's broken -- it will try to delete all files that don't start with master-2018, including directories and those that do not start with master.
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
0
down vote

If all files you want to delete has pattern like master-YYYY*, you can use those patterns:

rm -rf master-???[0-79]*
rm -rf master-??[02-9]*
rm -rf master-?[1-9]*
rm -rf master-[013-9]*

The goal is to ommit digits from a year number, so on first place after master- we need to ommit (don't remove) digit 2, on 2nd place digit 0, on 3rd place digit 1, and on 4th place - digit 8
I tried it just a minute before, and is enough to run only first two of them.

Second method:
You can move master-2018 to another dir, e.g. /tmp,
then remove everything with master-*, and move back your master-2018 from tmp.

mkdir /tmp/backup
mv -r master-2018* /tmp/backup
rm -rf master-*
mv -r /tmp/backup/* .

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Robert Zabkiewicz

11

New contributor

Robert Zabkiewicz is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Ahh so, rm -rf master-????[2019-9999]* would remove all files from master-2019* to master-9999*?
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  No, it not works this way. You can not specify numbers in [ ] braces. Only digits. You specify which digits will be places in the place of [xxxxxxx]. So max possibilities is range from 0 to 9 like this [0-9] or this [0123456789]. This can replace only one character from file name. rob@vps:mast$ ls master-1990 master-1994 master-2006 master-2010 master-2014 master-2018 master-1991 master-1995 master-2007 master-2009 master-2013 master-2017 rob@vps:mast$ rm master-[2000-2019]* rob@vps:mast$ ls empty directory`
  – Robert Zabkiewicz
  1 hour ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  none of your commands will remove a file with the name master-of-puppets
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

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4 Answers
4

active

oldest

votes

4 Answers
4

active

oldest

votes

active

oldest

votes

active

oldest

votes

up vote
3
down vote



accepted

Yes you can use more than one pattern with find:

$ find -name 'master*' ! -name 'master-2018*' -print0 |
 xargs -0 echo rm -fr

(remove the echo if you're satisfied with the dry run)

You should add a -maxdepth 1 predicate just after find if you only want ro remove files from the current directory, ie master-1991 but no subdir/master-1991.

share|improve this answer

edited 51 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

mosvy

3,770120

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  but the OP is using rm -rf, -delete will only work if the dir is empty.
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  I'll give this a go and report back, thanks for your help
  – Dan James Palmer
  56 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  This worked great, thank you
  – Dan James Palmer
  29 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
3
down vote



accepted

Yes you can use more than one pattern with find:

$ find -name 'master*' ! -name 'master-2018*' -print0 |
 xargs -0 echo rm -fr

(remove the echo if you're satisfied with the dry run)

You should add a -maxdepth 1 predicate just after find if you only want ro remove files from the current directory, ie master-1991 but no subdir/master-1991.

share|improve this answer

edited 51 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

mosvy

3,770120

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  but the OP is using rm -rf, -delete will only work if the dir is empty.
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  I'll give this a go and report back, thanks for your help
  – Dan James Palmer
  56 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  This worked great, thank you
  – Dan James Palmer
  29 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
3
down vote



accepted

up vote
3
down vote



accepted

Yes you can use more than one pattern with find:

$ find -name 'master*' ! -name 'master-2018*' -print0 |
 xargs -0 echo rm -fr

(remove the echo if you're satisfied with the dry run)

You should add a -maxdepth 1 predicate just after find if you only want ro remove files from the current directory, ie master-1991 but no subdir/master-1991.

share|improve this answer

edited 51 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

mosvy

3,770120

Yes you can use more than one pattern with find:

$ find -name 'master*' ! -name 'master-2018*' -print0 |
 xargs -0 echo rm -fr

(remove the echo if you're satisfied with the dry run)

You should add a -maxdepth 1 predicate just after find if you only want ro remove files from the current directory, ie master-1991 but no subdir/master-1991.

share|improve this answer

edited 51 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

mosvy

3,770120

share|improve this answer

share|improve this answer

edited 51 mins ago

edited 51 mins ago

edited 51 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

mosvy

3,770120

answered 1 hour ago

mosvy

3,770120

answered 1 hour ago

mosvy

3,770120

3,770120

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  but the OP is using rm -rf, -delete will only work if the dir is empty.
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  I'll give this a go and report back, thanks for your help
  – Dan James Palmer
  56 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  This worked great, thank you
  – Dan James Palmer
  29 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  but the OP is using rm -rf, -delete will only work if the dir is empty.
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  I'll give this a go and report back, thanks for your help
  – Dan James Palmer
  56 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  This worked great, thank you
  – Dan James Palmer
  29 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

but the OP is using rm -rf, -delete will only work if the dir is empty.
– mosvy
1 hour ago

but the OP is using rm -rf, -delete will only work if the dir is empty.
– mosvy
1 hour ago

I'll give this a go and report back, thanks for your help
– Dan James Palmer
56 mins ago

I'll give this a go and report back, thanks for your help
– Dan James Palmer
56 mins ago

This worked great, thank you
– Dan James Palmer
29 mins ago

This worked great, thank you
– Dan James Palmer
29 mins ago

add a comment | 

up vote
1
down vote

In bash:

shopt -s extglob
echo rm master-!(2018*)

Remove the echo if it looks correct.

The above uses bash's extended globbing facility to match files that start with master- but who do not have 2018 immediately following, then followed by anything (*).

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

add a comment | 

up vote
1
down vote

In bash:

shopt -s extglob
echo rm master-!(2018*)

Remove the echo if it looks correct.

The above uses bash's extended globbing facility to match files that start with master- but who do not have 2018 immediately following, then followed by anything (*).

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

add a comment | 

up vote
1
down vote

up vote
1
down vote

In bash:

shopt -s extglob
echo rm master-!(2018*)

Remove the echo if it looks correct.

The above uses bash's extended globbing facility to match files that start with master- but who do not have 2018 immediately following, then followed by anything (*).

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

In bash:

shopt -s extglob
echo rm master-!(2018*)

Remove the echo if it looks correct.

The above uses bash's extended globbing facility to match files that start with master- but who do not have 2018 immediately following, then followed by anything (*).

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

share|improve this answer

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

answered 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

answered 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

35.2k952115

35.2k952115

add a comment | 

add a comment | 

up vote
0
down vote

Use find:

find . ! -name "master-2018*" -delete

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Ipor Sircer

9,8711921

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Can you specify more than one? Like find . ! -name "master-201801*" "master-201802" -delete
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  there are other files in the same folder that start with things like test-2018 and find-2018. I don't want to delete any of these. It's strictly files that start master- but not master-2018*
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  that's broken -- it will try to delete all files that don't start with master-2018, including directories and those that do not start with master.
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
0
down vote

Use find:

find . ! -name "master-2018*" -delete

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Ipor Sircer

9,8711921

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Can you specify more than one? Like find . ! -name "master-201801*" "master-201802" -delete
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  there are other files in the same folder that start with things like test-2018 and find-2018. I don't want to delete any of these. It's strictly files that start master- but not master-2018*
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  that's broken -- it will try to delete all files that don't start with master-2018, including directories and those that do not start with master.
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
0
down vote

up vote
0
down vote

Use find:

find . ! -name "master-2018*" -delete

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Ipor Sircer

9,8711921

Use find:

find . ! -name "master-2018*" -delete

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Ipor Sircer

9,8711921

share|improve this answer

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

Ipor Sircer

9,8711921

answered 1 hour ago

Ipor Sircer

9,8711921

answered 1 hour ago

Ipor Sircer

9,8711921

9,8711921

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Can you specify more than one? Like find . ! -name "master-201801*" "master-201802" -delete
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  there are other files in the same folder that start with things like test-2018 and find-2018. I don't want to delete any of these. It's strictly files that start master- but not master-2018*
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  that's broken -- it will try to delete all files that don't start with master-2018, including directories and those that do not start with master.
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Can you specify more than one? Like find . ! -name "master-201801*" "master-201802" -delete
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  there are other files in the same folder that start with things like test-2018 and find-2018. I don't want to delete any of these. It's strictly files that start master- but not master-2018*
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  that's broken -- it will try to delete all files that don't start with master-2018, including directories and those that do not start with master.
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  

Can you specify more than one? Like find . ! -name "master-201801*" "master-201802" -delete
– Dan James Palmer
1 hour ago

Can you specify more than one? Like find . ! -name "master-201801*" "master-201802" -delete
– Dan James Palmer
1 hour ago

there are other files in the same folder that start with things like test-2018 and find-2018. I don't want to delete any of these. It's strictly files that start master- but not master-2018*
– Dan James Palmer
1 hour ago

there are other files in the same folder that start with things like test-2018 and find-2018. I don't want to delete any of these. It's strictly files that start master- but not master-2018*
– Dan James Palmer
1 hour ago

that's broken -- it will try to delete all files that don't start with master-2018, including directories and those that do not start with master.
– mosvy
1 hour ago

that's broken -- it will try to delete all files that don't start with master-2018, including directories and those that do not start with master.
– mosvy
1 hour ago

add a comment | 

up vote
0
down vote

If all files you want to delete has pattern like master-YYYY*, you can use those patterns:

rm -rf master-???[0-79]*
rm -rf master-??[02-9]*
rm -rf master-?[1-9]*
rm -rf master-[013-9]*

The goal is to ommit digits from a year number, so on first place after master- we need to ommit (don't remove) digit 2, on 2nd place digit 0, on 3rd place digit 1, and on 4th place - digit 8
I tried it just a minute before, and is enough to run only first two of them.

Second method:
You can move master-2018 to another dir, e.g. /tmp,
then remove everything with master-*, and move back your master-2018 from tmp.

mkdir /tmp/backup
mv -r master-2018* /tmp/backup
rm -rf master-*
mv -r /tmp/backup/* .

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Robert Zabkiewicz

11

New contributor

Robert Zabkiewicz is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Ahh so, rm -rf master-????[2019-9999]* would remove all files from master-2019* to master-9999*?
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  No, it not works this way. You can not specify numbers in [ ] braces. Only digits. You specify which digits will be places in the place of [xxxxxxx]. So max possibilities is range from 0 to 9 like this [0-9] or this [0123456789]. This can replace only one character from file name. rob@vps:mast$ ls master-1990 master-1994 master-2006 master-2010 master-2014 master-2018 master-1991 master-1995 master-2007 master-2009 master-2013 master-2017 rob@vps:mast$ rm master-[2000-2019]* rob@vps:mast$ ls empty directory`
  – Robert Zabkiewicz
  1 hour ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  none of your commands will remove a file with the name master-of-puppets
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
0
down vote

If all files you want to delete has pattern like master-YYYY*, you can use those patterns:

rm -rf master-???[0-79]*
rm -rf master-??[02-9]*
rm -rf master-?[1-9]*
rm -rf master-[013-9]*

The goal is to ommit digits from a year number, so on first place after master- we need to ommit (don't remove) digit 2, on 2nd place digit 0, on 3rd place digit 1, and on 4th place - digit 8
I tried it just a minute before, and is enough to run only first two of them.

Second method:
You can move master-2018 to another dir, e.g. /tmp,
then remove everything with master-*, and move back your master-2018 from tmp.

mkdir /tmp/backup
mv -r master-2018* /tmp/backup
rm -rf master-*
mv -r /tmp/backup/* .

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Robert Zabkiewicz

11

New contributor

Robert Zabkiewicz is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Ahh so, rm -rf master-????[2019-9999]* would remove all files from master-2019* to master-9999*?
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  No, it not works this way. You can not specify numbers in [ ] braces. Only digits. You specify which digits will be places in the place of [xxxxxxx]. So max possibilities is range from 0 to 9 like this [0-9] or this [0123456789]. This can replace only one character from file name. rob@vps:mast$ ls master-1990 master-1994 master-2006 master-2010 master-2014 master-2018 master-1991 master-1995 master-2007 master-2009 master-2013 master-2017 rob@vps:mast$ rm master-[2000-2019]* rob@vps:mast$ ls empty directory`
  – Robert Zabkiewicz
  1 hour ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  none of your commands will remove a file with the name master-of-puppets
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
0
down vote

up vote
0
down vote

If all files you want to delete has pattern like master-YYYY*, you can use those patterns:

rm -rf master-???[0-79]*
rm -rf master-??[02-9]*
rm -rf master-?[1-9]*
rm -rf master-[013-9]*

The goal is to ommit digits from a year number, so on first place after master- we need to ommit (don't remove) digit 2, on 2nd place digit 0, on 3rd place digit 1, and on 4th place - digit 8
I tried it just a minute before, and is enough to run only first two of them.

Second method:
You can move master-2018 to another dir, e.g. /tmp,
then remove everything with master-*, and move back your master-2018 from tmp.

mkdir /tmp/backup
mv -r master-2018* /tmp/backup
rm -rf master-*
mv -r /tmp/backup/* .

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Robert Zabkiewicz

11

New contributor

Robert Zabkiewicz is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

If all files you want to delete has pattern like master-YYYY*, you can use those patterns:

rm -rf master-???[0-79]*
rm -rf master-??[02-9]*
rm -rf master-?[1-9]*
rm -rf master-[013-9]*

The goal is to ommit digits from a year number, so on first place after master- we need to ommit (don't remove) digit 2, on 2nd place digit 0, on 3rd place digit 1, and on 4th place - digit 8
I tried it just a minute before, and is enough to run only first two of them.

Second method:
You can move master-2018 to another dir, e.g. /tmp,
then remove everything with master-*, and move back your master-2018 from tmp.

mkdir /tmp/backup
mv -r master-2018* /tmp/backup
rm -rf master-*
mv -r /tmp/backup/* .

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Robert Zabkiewicz

11

New contributor

Robert Zabkiewicz is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this answer

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

edited 1 hour ago

edited 1 hour ago

answered 1 hour ago

Robert Zabkiewicz

11

New contributor

Robert Zabkiewicz is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

answered 1 hour ago

Robert Zabkiewicz

11

answered 1 hour ago

Robert Zabkiewicz

11

11

New contributor

Robert Zabkiewicz is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

New contributor

Robert Zabkiewicz is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

Robert Zabkiewicz is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Ahh so, rm -rf master-????[2019-9999]* would remove all files from master-2019* to master-9999*?
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  No, it not works this way. You can not specify numbers in [ ] braces. Only digits. You specify which digits will be places in the place of [xxxxxxx]. So max possibilities is range from 0 to 9 like this [0-9] or this [0123456789]. This can replace only one character from file name. rob@vps:mast$ ls master-1990 master-1994 master-2006 master-2010 master-2014 master-2018 master-1991 master-1995 master-2007 master-2009 master-2013 master-2017 rob@vps:mast$ rm master-[2000-2019]* rob@vps:mast$ ls empty directory`
  – Robert Zabkiewicz
  1 hour ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  none of your commands will remove a file with the name master-of-puppets
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Ahh so, rm -rf master-????[2019-9999]* would remove all files from master-2019* to master-9999*?
  – Dan James Palmer
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  No, it not works this way. You can not specify numbers in [ ] braces. Only digits. You specify which digits will be places in the place of [xxxxxxx]. So max possibilities is range from 0 to 9 like this [0-9] or this [0123456789]. This can replace only one character from file name. rob@vps:mast$ ls master-1990 master-1994 master-2006 master-2010 master-2014 master-2018 master-1991 master-1995 master-2007 master-2009 master-2013 master-2017 rob@vps:mast$ rm master-[2000-2019]* rob@vps:mast$ ls empty directory`
  – Robert Zabkiewicz
  1 hour ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  none of your commands will remove a file with the name master-of-puppets
  – mosvy
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  

1

1

Ahh so, rm -rf master-????[2019-9999]* would remove all files from master-2019* to master-9999*?
– Dan James Palmer
1 hour ago

Ahh so, rm -rf master-????[2019-9999]* would remove all files from master-2019* to master-9999*?
– Dan James Palmer
1 hour ago

No, it not works this way. You can not specify numbers in [ ] braces. Only digits. You specify which digits will be places in the place of [xxxxxxx]. So max possibilities is range from 0 to 9 like this [0-9] or this [0123456789]. This can replace only one character from file name. rob@vps:mast$ ls master-1990 master-1994 master-2006 master-2010 master-2014 master-2018 master-1991 master-1995 master-2007 master-2009 master-2013 master-2017 rob@vps:mast$ rm master-[2000-2019]* rob@vps:mast$ ls empty directory`
– Robert Zabkiewicz
1 hour ago

No, it not works this way. You can not specify numbers in [ ] braces. Only digits. You specify which digits will be places in the place of [xxxxxxx]. So max possibilities is range from 0 to 9 like this [0-9] or this [0123456789]. This can replace only one character from file name. rob@vps:mast$ ls master-1990 master-1994 master-2006 master-2010 master-2014 master-2018 master-1991 master-1995 master-2007 master-2009 master-2013 master-2017 rob@vps:mast$ rm master-[2000-2019]* rob@vps:mast$ ls empty directory`
– Robert Zabkiewicz
1 hour ago

1

1

none of your commands will remove a file with the name master-of-puppets
– mosvy
1 hour ago

none of your commands will remove a file with the name master-of-puppets
– mosvy
1 hour ago

add a comment | 

Dan James Palmer is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.

 

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