Move all files except one

Question

How can I move all files except one  I am looking for something like     mv   Linux Old  Tux png   Linux New     where I move old stuff to new stuff -folder except Tux png   -sign represents a negation  Is there some tool for the job

User · Answer

The following is not a 100  guaranteed method  and should not at all be attempted for scripting  But some times it is good enough for quick interactive shell usage  A file file glob like   abc      which will match all files with names starting with a  b or c  can be negated by inserting a     character first  i e      abc     I sometimes use this for not matching the  lost found  directory  like for instance   mv  mnt usbdisk   l    home user stuff     Of course if there are other files starting with l I have to process those afterwards

User · Answer

A quick way would be to modify the tux filename so that your move command will not match   For example   mv Tux png  Tux png  mv     somefolder  mv  Tux png Tux png

User · Answer

Put the following to your  bashrc   shopt -s extglob   It extends regexes  You can then move all files except one by  mv   fileOne    path newFolder   Exceptions in relation to other commands  Note that  in copying directories  the forward-flash cannot be used in the name as noticed in the thread Why extglob except breaking except condition    cp -r   Backups backupdb   home masi Documents    so Backups backupdb  is wrong here before the negation and I would not use it neither in moving directories because of the risk of using wrongly then globs with other commands and possible other exceptions

User · Answer

mv  find Linux Old     -type d   fgrep -v Tux png  Linux New   The find command lists all regular files and the fgrep command filters out any Tux png   The backticks tell mv to move the resulting file list

User · Answer

I would go with the traditional find  amp  xargs way   find   Linux Old -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -not -name Tux png -print0        xargs -0 mv -t   Linux New   -maxdepth 1 makes it not search recursively  If you only care about files  you can say -type f  -mindepth 1 makes it not include the   Linux Old path itself into the result  Works with any filenames  including with those that contain embedded newlines    One comment notes that the mv -t option is a probably GNU extension  For systems that don t have it  find   Linux Old -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -not -name Tux png       -exec mv        Linux New

User · Answer

For bash  sth answer is correct  Here is the zsh  my shell of choice  syntax   mv   Linux Old  Tux png   Linux New    Requires EXTENDED GLOB shell option to be set

User · Answer

move all files not include except file  to except file find -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -not -name except file -print0  xargs -0 mv -t   except file for example cache is current except file  find -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -not -name cache -print0  xargs -0 mv -t   cache

User · Answer

I think the easiest way to do is with backticks  mv  ls -1   Linux Old    grep -v Tux png    Linux New    Edit   Use backslash with ls instead to prevent using it with alias  i e  mostly ls is aliased as ls --color   mv   ls -1   Linux Old    grep -v Tux png    Linux New    Thanks  Arnold Roa

User · Answer

How about   mv   echo     sed s Tux png  g    Linux New    You have to be in the folder though

User · Answer

I find this to be a bit safer and easier to rely on for simple moves that exclude certain files or directories   ls -1   grep -v   EXCLUDE   xargs -I   mv     TARGET

User · Answer

One can skip grep like this   ls   Linux Old  -QI Tux png   xargs -I   mv   Linux Old      Linux New

User · Answer

ls   Linux Old    grep -v Tux png   xargs -i    mv   Linux New

User · Answer

This could be simpler and easy to remember and it works for me   mv   ls   folder   grep -v   folder exclude png    destination

User · Answer

If you use bash and have the extglob shell option set  which is usually the case    mv   Linux Old   Tux png    Linux New

[linux] Move all files except one

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