asked on

Windows Cmd: fastest way to remove subfolders from a folder and excluding a folder

Hello experts,

I am looking for the fastest way to delete the various subfolders from a rootfolder and exclude some folder withtout removing the root folder and reporting the exclude folder

Example
C:\rootfolder\ contains subfolders such as:

C:\rootfolder\ogs
C:\rootfolder\bin
C:\rootfolder\conf

The command should remove C:\rootfolder\ogs and C:\rootfolder\bin and keep C:\rootfolder\conf.

The objective is to launch the command withtout saving it a bat file.

If you have questions, please contact me.

Thank you very much for your help.

oBdA

Go PowerShell. Test mode comes for free; this will only show what it would delete. Remove the -WhatIf at the end to run it for real:

Get-ChildItem c:\rootfolder -Directory -Exclude conf | Remove-Item -Recurse -WhatIf

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Roland Lee

Try this
1. Go to command prompt and type these commands
2. RD /S /Q C:\rootfolder\ogs
3. RD /S /Q C:\rootfolder\bin

Luis Diaz

ASKER

I know this command however how do you do if you have 100 folders to delete and keep 1.
Are you going to launch this 99 times?
I don't think this is the fastest way.

Luis Diaz

ASKER

@Obda: possible to have a cmd & windows batch command?

oBdA

Well, nothing keeps you from calling powershell from batch/cmd. As before in test mode with -WhatIf:

powershell.exe -Command "Get-ChildItem 'c:\rootfolder' -Directory -Exclude 'conf' | Remove-Item -Recurse -WhatIf"

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Note: the single quotes are not required as longs as the names don't contain spaces; they're just there to show how to easiest handle names with spaces in this situation.

Roland Lee

Else, you can try robocopy
https://helpcenter.gsx.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002767907-How-to-Clean-Folder-Contents-when-a-Filename-or-File-Path-is-to-long
https://pureinfotech.com/exclude-files-folders-robocopy-windows-10/

Bill Prew

This is probably the shortest I can think of from a command prompt. It will display "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." when it finishes but that's okay, that's because we CD to the folder we want to keep and so it can't be deleted because it's "in use".

cd /d "C:\rootfolder\conf" && rd /s /q ..

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Edit:

As oBdA accurately points out below, this only leaves the actual conf folder, not it's content.

»bp

Bill Prew

And for the verbose BAT script approach you can build off of:

Batch script to delete all folders except one

»bp

oBdA

Careful with Bill Prew one-liner
This will keep the conf folder item itself, but it will remove any content that currently is below conf!
As I've understood your question, you want to keep the folder intact, including its content.

Bill Prew

If you want to preserve the entire "conf" folder and it's content then it gets longer, something like this perhaps.

for /d %A in ("b:\ee\temp\rdtest\*") do @if "%~nxA" NEQ "d2" @rd /s /q %A

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»bp

Luis Diaz

ASKER

Thank you for your feedback.
Bill: I am in with your last proposal however I don't see which is the folder (and its contain) to exclude d2?

-b:\ee\temp\rdtest\* is the root folder in which are located subfolders to remove
-Excluded folder (and it contains) is which one?

Bill Prew

Sorry, that was my test here, meant to adjust to your examples. That would look like:

for /d %A in ("C:\rootfolder\*") do @if "%~nxA" NEQ "conf" @rd /s /q %A

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»bp

Luis Diaz

ASKER

Thank you very much Bill. Las two questions. Conf folder contain will remain intact?
Possible to include in the same command additional folder to exclude?

Bill Prew

Thank you very much Bill. Las two questions. Conf folder contain will remain intact?

Yes.

Possible to include in the same command additional folder to exclude?

Not easily, you would nearly double the length of the command and more prone to mistakes.

»bp

Bill Prew

Actually, maybe two folders isn't quite as bad as I was thinking, but test it carefully there...

for /d %A in ("C:\rootfolder\*") do @if "%~nxA" NEQ "conf" @if "%~nxA" NEQ "conf2" @rd /s /q %A

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»bp

Luis Diaz

ASKER

Ok, I will test it.
Thank you very much.

Luis Diaz

ASKER

Bill, I tested but I got the following error message:
The system cannot find the file specified. I presume that a pushd is required. Is it possible to do a cd to get the root folder and then launch for command?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Bill Prew

Should not need a pushd, please paste your command here,

~bp

Luis Diaz

ASKER

for /d %A in (C:\Users\ld\Downloads\Functions\*) do @if "%~nxA" NEQ "conf" @if "%~nxA" NEQ "conf2" @rd /s /q %A

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And I launch the command from
C:\Windows\system32

Thank you

Bill Prew

On mobile, harder to type, but does Functions folder exist in that location, and does it contain sub folders?

~bp

Luis Diaz

ASKER

Yes they exist and it contains the subfolders:

@

Obda I tested the following in cmd but I don't get the delete:

powershell.exe -Command "Get-ChildItem 'C:\Users\ld16\Downloads\Functions\*' -Directory -Exclude 'conf' | Remove-Item -Recurse"

Thank you in advance for your help.

oBdA

That's because of the "\*" you added at the end of the path.
I added the test mode -WhatIf again, so that you'll see what it would delete.
If you want to see what it actually deletes, you can add -Verbose.

powershell.exe -Command "Get-ChildItem 'C:\Users\ld16\Downloads\Functions' -Directory -Exclude 'conf' | Remove-Item -Recurse -WhatIf"

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Bill Prew

Not sure what you are doing wrong there, or what is "interesting" about your files / folders, but I constructed a test here and it worked fine. As long as you have privs to the folders, etc...

Sun 02/03/2019 12:03:58.06 B:\EE\EE29134389>tree /a /f

Folder PATH listing for volume bill

B:.
|   EE29134389.bat
|
\---Users
    \---ld
        \---Downloads
            \---Functions
                +---conf
                |   |   f3.txt
                |   |
                |   \---d3
                |           f13.txt
                |
                +---empty
                +---conf2
                |   |   f4.txt
                |   |
                |   \---d4
                |           f14.txt
                |
                +---logs
                |   |   f1.txt
                |   |
                |   \---d1
                |           f11.txt
                |
                \---bin
                    |   f2.txt
                    |
                    \---d2
                            f12.txt


Sun 02/03/2019 12:04:02.77 B:\EE\EE29134389>for /d %A in (B:\EE\EE29134389\Users\ld\Downloads\Functions\*) do @if "%~nxA" NEQ "conf" @if "%~nxA" NEQ "conf2" @rd /s /q %A

Sun 02/03/2019 12:04:08.67 B:\EE\EE29134389>tree /a /f

Folder PATH listing for volume bill

B:.
|   EE29134389.bat
|
\---Users
    \---ld
        \---Downloads
            \---Functions
                +---conf
                |   |   f3.txt
                |   |
                |   \---d3
                |           f13.txt
                |
                \---conf2
                    |   f4.txt
                    |
                    \---d4
                            f14.txt

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»bp

Luis Diaz

ASKER

@oBda I tested and it works!

If I want to add multiple folders to exclude such as conf and conf2 how should I proceed.

Luis Diaz

ASKER

Bill: When I tested without the Function\* it works however it remove the various Function folder I suppose this * is not properly interpreted by cmd.
Thank you in advance for your help.

Bill Prew

If you do the following command, what is the exact output?

dir C:\Users\ld\Downloads\Functions

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»bp

SOLUTION

oBdA

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Luis Diaz

ASKER

Bill:
This what I get with dir command on Functions folder:

02-Feb-19  08:20 PM    <DIR>          .
02-Feb-19  08:20 PM    <DIR>          ..
02-Feb-19  08:18 PM    <DIR>          conf
02-Feb-19  08:18 PM    <DIR>          conf2
02-Feb-19  08:18 PM    <DIR>          New folder
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               5 Dir(s)  341,961,846,784 bytes free

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Bill Prew

Given that you have folders with spaces in their names, you will need to quote the folder path in the RD, as in:

for /d %A in (C:\Users\ld\Downloads\Functions\*) do @if "%~nxA" NEQ "conf" @if "%~nxA" NEQ "conf2" @rd /s /q "%A"

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»bp

Luis Diaz

ASKER

Thank you Bill. Tested and it works!
Possible to add echo to know what has been deleted and the end of the command execution?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Bill Prew

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Luis Diaz

ASKER

Thank you Bill, I tested and it works! Thank you again for your help.