batch file to delete contents of subfolders except specifc folder

oops, use "Suppliers" instead of "folders" in line 3 :

cd c:\Suppliers

Test it before change the line debug=off
Bye Gas

knightEknight: your script leave all the empty dir

@echo off
::
:: DelAllExcept.cmd
:: Delete all files and folder and subfolders EXCEPT
:: ones named "images" starting from a folder
::
:: bye Gastone Canali
setlocal
 
set debug=on
set STARTFOLDER=c:\Suppliers
set EXCEPT="\images\"
 
set nolog= ^> nul 2^>^&1
 
if {%debug%}=={off} goto :DEBUG_OFF 
 Echo Debug ON: only display Folder to be deleted
 set echo=echo
 set nolog=
:DEBUG_OFF
if not exist %STARTFOLDER% goto :ERR
if exist  %temp%\F.tmp del  %temp%\F.tmp %nolog%
if exist  %temp%\F.rev del  %temp%\F.rev %nolog%
for /r %STARTFOLDER% %%f in (.) do echo %%f|find/v %EXCEPT%>> %temp%\F.tmp
for /f "delims=/" %%f in ('type %temp%\F.tmp') do %echo% del /q "%%f\*.*" %nolog%
for /f "delims=/" %%f in ('type %temp%\F.tmp') do %echo% rd     "%%f"     %nolog%
echo > nul 2>&1
goto :FINE
:ERR
echo Folder %STARTFOLDER% not found!
 
:FINE

                                              

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canali,

I set debug to off, ran it, and it deleted all subfolders in the misc folders, including the images folders. The only ones it didnt delete were ones with a period and/or & in the names. Of course I have a copy, so I can run it again if we can figure out what went wrong. Thanks.

could part of the problem be
set EXCEPT="\images\"
the trailing \ after images?

Did you mean you want to remove all folders except Images folders or you want to delete all files in all folders except ones name "images".  The question seemed to be the latter.

The structure is thus...

Suppliers
   > Folder A
      > Sub Folder1
      > Sub Folder 2
      > Images
      > Sub Folder 3

I want to preserve Suppliers, Folder A, and Images.

And, again, under Suppliers, there are many Folder A's.

ok, so you want to preserve the folder structure, you just want all the folders except Images folders to be empty, correct?

"preserve the folder structure" - Yes

"all the folders except Images folders to be empty" - Not just empty, but deleted.

So I would end up with...

Suppliers
   > Folder A
      > Images
   > Folder B
      > Images
   > Folder C
      > Images
etc

ah, so that is where I was confused, because to me preserving the structure means not removing the folders.

In that case I re-submit this with changes to accomodate your needs:

@echo off
c:
cd c:\Suppliers

:first delete all files not in "images" folders
dir/s/b/ad | find/v "\images" > filelist.txt
for /f "delims=" %%F in (filelist.txt) do del/y "%%F\*.*"

:next, delete the empty folders
dir/s/b/ad  > filelist.txt

:you will need to repeat the next line of code for the deepest number of folder-levels you have (I use 3)
:it will not remove non-empty folders like images

for /f %%D in (filelist.txt) do rd %%D > nul
for /f %%D in (filelist.txt) do rd %%D > nul
for /f %%D in (filelist.txt) do rd %%D > nul

Ran that. The cmd window said invalid switch -y a bunch of times, then it said the system cannot find the file specified a bunch of times. Then I looked in the Suppliers folder, opened a few subfolders, and nothing had changed.

sorry!  change /y to /q

also, do the Images folders have sub-folders under them?

e.g.
Suppliers
   > Folder A
      > Sub Folder1
      > Sub Folder 2
      > Images
         > sub-images folder                      <---
      > Sub Folder 3

also, I forgot the quotes around the  rd  statements, so I'm re-submitting with corrections:

@echo off
c:
cd c:\Suppliers

:first delete all files not in "images" folders
dir/s/b/ad | find/v "\images" > filelist.txt
for /f "delims=" %%F in (filelist.txt) do del/q "%%F\*.*"

:next, delete the empty folders
dir/s/b/ad  > filelist.txt

:you will need to repeat the next line of code for the deepest number of folder-levels you have (I use 3)
:it will not remove non-empty folders like images

for /f "delims=" %%D in (filelist.txt) do rd "%%D" > nul
for /f "delims=" %%D in (filelist.txt) do rd "%%D" > nul
for /f "delims=" %%D in (filelist.txt) do rd "%%D" > nul

That appears to work, but it goes too far. t deletes any folder that has an images folder which is empty. I want to preserve the existing root stucture under suppliers, with all the folders intact and thier images folders, even if thier images folder is empty. Is that possible?

It is as long as the image folders don't have sub-folders under them.  If so, then simply remove this line from my previous post:

  dir/s/b/ad  > filelist.txt

That will allow the script to use the previous version of filelist.txt, which does not contain any entrys for Images folders.

Also, you may want to add this line at the end, just to clean up:

  del filelist.txt

Beautiful, perfect. Thanks.

I am going to now open another question elsewhere on a kind of related thing, but it will be run on our Unix web server. If you can help with that, great :-)

Hi ,

i am trying to run this bat file . its not deleteing the subfilders and files on the folder.

My requirement is , if i given the path it has to delte the all the sub folders , sub file and files in that  folder.
Please help on this.