asked on

Delete files based on NOT meeting criteria

Is it possible to delete a set of files if they do not match a file type criteria?

I have a folder on the network which is meant to hold word docs.
Someone on the network has been dumping other random rubbish in there.

If the rubbish was always MP3 files, then I could do a "del h:\*.mp3"

What I really want is something along the lines of "del NOT h:\*.doc *.*"

Is this possible? I would probably put it into a batch file to run at regular intervals.

Thanks in advance,

Richard.

Computron

DEL doesn't have exceptions available, however, why don't you create a quick backup folder and copy *.doc to that folder, then delete the original, then copy the backup folder back to the original.

sirbounty

Sure, it's possible with a for loop...
remove the echo to 'initiate' the erase...

for %%a in (*.*) do (
set strFile=%%a
set strExt=%%~xa
if not %strExt%==.doc echo erase %strFile%
)

highwaterhead

ASKER

Computron - Thought of that, but would prefer a more direct method.

sirbounty - Like the look of that, but could you explain how/where I put that into a batch file?

Thanks.

highwaterhead

ASKER

OK,

I have come up with this:

attrib -a *.doc /s (removes archive attribute)
erase *.* /a:a /s /q (deletes all files that HAVE the archive attribute set)
attrib +a *.doc /s (replaces archive attribute - for NT backup)

This works as erase allows you to specify by attribute.

Seems a bit fiddly. Anyone have a better idea?

Thanks in advance.

Richard.

Qlemo

This looks more strange :-), but should be slower because of the repeated calls to del:
(if not in batch mode, replace %% by %)

dir /s/b | for /F "delims=" %%f in ('findstr /v .doc') do @del %%f

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

sirbounty

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