How can I delete files in terminal fluently?

Question

For example, I do

cd Music
dir

and get

123456789.mp3
qweerkrtrkgljdjfkdjfdkf.mp3
a.mp3
b.mp3
blabla.mp3

how do I delete, say, files qweerkrtrkgljdjfkdjfdkf.mp3 and blabla.mp3 with least effort?

UPD: Key idea is that file names can be long so I actually dont want to type them.

Answer 1

Try this:

rm -f 2.mp3 blabla.mp3

rm removes files, and -f forces it to (so that it wont stop, asking you if you want to delete the file). If this not in your home directory, prepend sudo. Here is another way that might require less typing (a bit harder to read though)

rm -f {2,blabla}.mp3

This expands to 2.mp3 blabla.mp3. If you want to use larger filenames, you can use the wildcard character (*), which will return all items starting/ending with the filename you chose. For example:

rm -f bla*

will remove blabla.mp3. If you used:

rm -f *.mp3

It will remove all files ending with mp3. If you used this:

rm -f bla*.mp3

It will remove all files starting with blah and ending with .mp3. Possibilities are nearly endless with the * character :P

Answer 2

Try this: rm qweer*.mp3 bla*.mp3

Caution: If there is a file name which is started with these letters,this command will detete that.

Answer 3

As @Hckr already mentioned there no similarities between the name. You can use wildcards, e.g. rm *.mp3 would remove all files whose names end with .mp3. If there are no such similarities you need to specify every file indivually.

You can in fact save some typing by using tab completion. In your example, if you type rm q and press the tabulator key it will be completed to rm qweerkrtrkgljdjfkdjfdkf.mp3. This works because its the only file starting with q. If you'd type rm b this would not be enough for completion because you have two files starting with b.

Answer 4

Easy, rm 2.mp3 blabla.mp3.

CAUTION: This will cause permanent deletion!

---

For files:

1234.MP3 1345.MP3 1234.MP4

rm -f 1*3*.MP3 would delete the first 2, no confirm, PERMANENTLY!

* is anything even blank that is why it still deletes the second one.

Answer 5

Just as everyone says, rm -f <file> is the way to go, however, as stonedsquirrel said, you can type the first few letters and hit <TAB> and it will autofill the file name.