To delete all files in a directory in Linux, except for a few files that you want to keep, you can use the rm command with the ! operator and the -I option.
For example, to delete all files in the current directory except for the files file1.txt and file2.txt, you can use the following command:
rm !(file1.txt|file2.txt)Source:www.lautturi.com
This will delete all files in the current directory, except for file1.txt and file2.txt.
You can also use the find command to delete all files in a directory, except for a few files that you want to keep. For example, to delete all files in the /tmp directory except for the files file1.txt and file2.txt, you can use the following command:
find /tmp -type f ! -name "file1.txt" ! -name "file2.txt" -delete
This will find all files in the /tmp directory, except for file1.txt and file2.txt, and delete them.
It is important to use caution when deleting files, as it is not possible to recover deleted files. Make sure that you have a backup of any important data before deleting any files.