CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regexlinuxmatch
Oliver Kucharzewski
Oliver Kucharzewski

Reputation: 2645

Deleting files not containing double digit number and pattern in grep

The pattern below is supposed to delete all files that dont start with 1_ but instead it matches all files that don't contain 1.

For example, it'll not match 11_xxx.sql.bz2 and 1_xxx.sql.bz2 but will match all the others correctly.

How can I ensure the pattern only matches the exact number and not any number which contains the number?

For example, i would like the script below only to not match 1_xxx.sql.bz2

ls | grep -P "^[^1]+_([^_]+).+$" | xargs -d"\n" rm

Upvotes: 1

Views: 106

Answers (2)

anubhava
anubhava

Reputation: 785098

I will need to keep items without a number at the start

I suggest using find like this to match all files in current directory excluding those that start with 1_:

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '[0-9]*' -not -name '1_*' -delete

If your find doesn't support -delete then use:

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '[0-9]*' -not -name '1_*' -exec rm {} +

Upvotes: 4

Barmar
Barmar

Reputation: 780889

use grep -v to invert the match, so you exclude files that match the pattern.

grep -v '^1_'

Upvotes: 0

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