How to search/list for all files starting with dot (.) but .htaccess is excluded from the list

RahimM

11/13/23, 2:05 AM

Using SSH command line, I need to delete all the files starting with dot (.) but I don't want to delete .htaccess files.

I tried so far to list them like this

find . -type f -name ".*"

It listed all the files properly.but .htaccess was there too. Thanks

1 + 0

ssh

Score:1

Ubuntu

steeldriver

11/13/23, 2:19 AM

You can use ! (or, in GNU find, -not) to logically invert a test. From man find:

   ! expr True  if  expr  is false.  This character will also usually need
          protection from interpretation by the shell.

   -not expr
          Same as ! expr, but not POSIX compliant.

find . -type f -name ".*" ! -name .htaccess

find . -type f -name ".*" -not -name .htaccess

Ex. given

$ find . -type f -name ".*"
./.bar
./.baz
./.foo
./.htaccess

then

$ find . -type f -name ".*" ! -name .htaccess -delete

leaving

$ find . -type f -name ".*"
./.htaccess

+ 2

RahimM

11/13/23, 2:23 AM

Thanks for the answer, I want to delete the list after I show it . ofcourse I don't want to delete the .htacess Thanks a lot again

RahimM

11/13/23, 2:36 AM

It worked, Thank you so much for your help

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