How to delete all files in a directory except some?

Solution 1:

What I do in those cases is to type

rm *

Then I press Ctrl+X,* to expand * into all visible file names.

Then I can just remove the two files I like to keep from the list and finally execute the command line.

To rm all but u,p in bash just type:

rm !(u|p)

This requires the following option to be set:

shopt -s extglob

See more: glob - Greg's Wiki

You can use find

find . ! -name u ! -name p -maxdepth 1 -type f -delete

! negates the next expression
-name specifies a filename
-maxdepth 1 will make find process the specified directory only (find by default traverses directories)
-type f will process only files (and not for example directories)
-delete will delete the files

You can then tune the conditions looking at the man page of find

Update

Keep in mind that the order of the elements of the expressions is significant (see the documentation)

Test your command first by using -print instead of -delete

find . ! -name u ! -name p -maxdepth 1 -type f -print