C system function causes error 'sh: Syntax error: "(" unexpected '

I wrote a simple program in C on Linux to delete all the files in a directory except one called svn like this:

  1 #include <stdio.h>
  2 
  3 int main()
  4 {
  5     system("rm !(svn)");
  6     return 0;
  7 }

But when I开发者_开发问答 compile and run it, the terminal says: sh: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

However, when I type and run the command in the terminal directly, all things are done correctly. Any ideas?

The answer is don't use system. Use the Linux system calls to list the files in the directory and remove them using unlink(). Something like:

DIR* dirHandle = opendir(dirName);
struct dirent* dirEntry;
while ((dirEntry = readdir(dirHandle)) != NULL)
{
    if (strcmp(dirEntry->d_name, "svn") != 0)
    {
        unlink(dirEntry->d_name);
    }
}

Warning: all error handling omitted, not compiled and tested, readdir might return . and .. which also need to be not deleted.

You will probably need to use this:

system("/bin/bash -c 'rm !(svn)'")

or possibly:

system("/bin/bash -O extglob -c 'rm !(svn)'")

or:

system("find . -maxdepth 1 ! -name 'svn' -delete")

or similar.

But it's probably better to use JeremyP's answer.

You must use sh shell syntax, you are not doing this.

I think I would just add the shell to the system command:

system("/bin/csh rm !(svn)");

or whatever shell you use.

Workaround: Move file outside directory (f. e. in /tmp or ..), delete all, move it back (do it using several system() calls).

Another approach:

find . -prune ! -name svn | xargs /bin/rm -f