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Ogden
Ogden

Reputation: 171

Pattern match does not work in bash script

Using the pattern match !("file1") does not work within a bash script but will work on the command line.

For example:

ls  !("file1"|"file2")

This will list all files in directory except file1 and file2.

When that line is executed in a script this error is displayed: 

./script.sh: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `('
./script.sh: line 1: ` ls  !("file1"|"file2") '

Regardless what is used rm -v !("file1"). The same error takes place. What is going on here why does this not work in a script?

Upvotes: 16

Views: 2699

Answers (3)

vintnes
vintnes

Reputation: 2030

Method with default settings and no external procs:

for f in *; do [[ $f =~ ^file[12]$ ]] || echo "$f"; done

Upvotes: 3

tripleee
tripleee

Reputation: 189467

The extended glob syntax you are trying to use is turned off by default; you have to enable it separately in each script where you want to use it.

shopt -s extglob

Scripts should not use ls though I imagine you were using it merely as a placeholder here.

Upvotes: 17

Rafael
Rafael

Reputation: 7746

Globbing doesn't work that way unless you enable extglob shell opt. Instead, I recommend using find:

find . -maxdepth 1 -not -name '<NAME>' -or -name '<NAME>' -delete

before running this command with -delete ensure the output is correct

Upvotes: 5

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