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I would like to list all files with extension .log except the file backup.log.

I have tried using this command: 

ls *.log -I "backup.log"

But all the log files are listed, even backup.log!

How could I list all the log files except backup.log?

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5 Answers 5

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12

The shell expands the wildcard, so ls gets backup.log as one of the parameters.

Use an extended pattern (enabled by shopt -s extglob):

ls !(backup).log
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4
  • I did not think of this shell trick yet, simple and useful! Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 16:00
  • I just tried this and I didn't work. It lists all files except backup.log. What I want is to list all log files except backup.log. Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 16:42
  • @JavierCintrón: Did you use !(backup).log or !(backup.log)? Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 16:45
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    Geez man :) I used ls !(backup.log). I confirm that ls !(backup).log is the solution for my problem. Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 16:50
7

One possibility would be:

 find . -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -name \*.log -a -not -name backup.log

i.e. find all files in the current directory or below, with an exact depth of 1 (so really only in the current directory and not the name of the current directory itself) with name matching the pattern *.log and not backup.log

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6
  • This is exactly what I wanted. Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 16:49
  • But kind of complicated Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 16:58
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    @JavierCintrón: yes, but once you want to do anything with the files, it's easier to find -exec than to worry about parsing the output of ls, which you cannot usually do in a safe manner. Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 18:04
  • You have the reason man. In my case I just needed to count the amount of log files except backup.log, which I did using this command: ls -laht !(backup).log | wc -l. If I had needed to do anything with these files inside a loop, I would have used your solution. Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 22:38
  • Well, the point where things get ugly is when you have spaces or newlines in file names, which throws off wc -l. Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 5:24
1

TXR:

$ ls *.patch
install-tests.patch  match.patch  netbsd.patch  specials.patch  wlist.patch
$ txr -t '(glob "*.patch")'
install-tests.patch
match.patch
netbsd.patch
specials.patch
wlist.patch
$ txr -t '(set-diff (glob "*.patch") (glob "[mn]*.patch"))'
install-tests.patch
specials.patch
wlist.patch
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1

you can skip Backup keyword from shell expansion by using !(keyword)

ubuntu@vm-ubuntu:~$ ls *.log

1.log  2.log  backup.log

ubuntu@vm-ubuntu:~$ ls  !(backup).log

1.log  2.log
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-2

What about parsing the output of ls through grep:

ls -l *.log | grep -v backup.log
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2
  • 1
    What if you have symlinks pointing to backup.log? How about other files with names ending in backup.log? Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 15:44
  • 1
    ... or even containing backup.log? Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 15:44

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