How to delete all files in a directory except some?

To rm all but u,p in bash just type:

rm !(u|p)

This requires the following option to be set:

shopt -s extglob

See more: glob - Greg's Wiki

What I do in those cases is to type

rm *

Then I press Ctrl+X,* to expand * into all visible file names.

Then I can just remove the two files I like to keep from the list and finally execute the command line.

You can use find

find . ! -name u ! -name p -maxdepth 1 -type f -delete

• ! negates the next expression
• -name specifies a filename
• -maxdepth 1 will make find process the specified directory only (find by default traverses directories)
• -type f will process only files (and not for example directories)
• -delete will delete the files

You can then tune the conditions looking at the man page of find

Update

• Keep in mind that the order of the elements of the expressions is significant (see the documentation)

• Test your command first by using -print instead of -delete

  find . ! -name u ! -name p -maxdepth 1 -type f -print