Delete all files that do NOT start with something

Question

In Linux, how do I delete all files in a directory that do NOT start with a pref (for example sess_*)?

Answer 1

Using Bash:

shopt -s extglob
rm !(sess_*)

Answer 2

I prefer find:

find ./ -type f \( \! -name 'sess_*' \) -exec rm {} \;

You might want to adjust depth in order to avoid recursion.

Answer 3

In the above

cd /tmp ; ls -1 | grep -v sess_ | xargs rm -f

the grep should be grep -v '^sess_*'

Other wise files such as ppp_sess_333 would be left behind.

Answer 4

One solution is to pipe it through grep. For example:

cd /tmp ; ls -1 | grep -v sess_ | xargs rm -f

Another option is find (this excludes directories too):

find /tmp ! -name sess_\* ! -type d -exec rm -f {} \;