Bash – list all files with extension .log except one

bashls

I would like to list all files with extension .log except the file backup.log.

I have tried using this command:

ls *.log -I "backup.log"

But all the log files are listed, even backup.log!

How could I list all the log files except backup.log?

The shell expands the wildcard, so ls gets backup.log as one of the parameters.

Use an extended pattern (enabled by shopt -s extglob):

ls !(backup).log

echo *

... will show files in the current folder through file globbing on Bourne compatible shells.

This lists all files down one level:

echo */*

In Bash, if globstar is set (set with shopt -s globstar, unset with shopt -u globstar), this will list all files recursively:

echo **

Assuming one has GNU ls, this is possibly the simplest way:

ls -I "*.txt" -I "*.pdf"

If you want to iterate across all the subdirectories:

ls -I "*.txt" -I "*.pdf" -R