Deleting lots of files.....

B14speedfreak · #1 (**permalink**) 05-25-2006

Hi All,

Thanks in advance for reading and any posts...

I have to delete a lot of files (about 6 pages of a4 (ls -ltr)) but I have to keep some as well. I would normally do an rm * to get rid of them all, but thats not what I want to do. Is there anyway I could rm * but add in a list of files that I don't want to delete.

Thanks for reading and any posts,

Mark.

jim mcnamara · #2 (**permalink**) 05-25-2006

put a list of "keeper files" into goodfiles then

Code:

ls -1 | grep -v -f goodfiles | \
while read file
do
       rm -f $file
done

B14speedfreak · #3 (**permalink**) 05-25-2006

Thanks for the replay will try making a small shell script with it... thanks Mark...

B14speedfreak · #4 (**permalink**) 05-25-2006

When I run that I get the following error:

grep: illegal option -- f
Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file . . .
[2] + Done(2) ls -1 | grep -v -f goodfiles | \;while read filee

Any ideas????

Thanks again,

B14...aka... marky mark....

madhunk · #5 (**permalink**) 05-25-2006

Check if your grep supports -v and -f options...

type

Code:

man grep

at the command prompt

If you are on Sun Solaris box, some options are supported by

Code:

/usr/xpg4/bin/grep

and some options are supported by

Code:

/usr/bin/grep

Give the entire path of grep...

See if it works!!

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