Question: I have this list of files on a Linux server:

```
abc.log.2012-03-14
abc.log.2012-03-27
abc.log.2012-03-28
abc.log.2012-03-29
abc.log.2012-03-30
abc.log.2012-04-02
abc.log.2012-04-04
abc.log.2012-04-05
abc.log.2012-04-09
abc.log.2012-04-10

```

I've been deleting selected log files one by one, using the command `rm -rf` see below:

```
rm -rf abc.log.2012-03-14
rm -rf abc.log.2012-03-27
rm -rf abc.log.2012-03-28

```

Is there another way, so that I can delete the selected files at once?

Answer: 
Bash supports all sorts of wildcards and expansions.

Your exact case would be handled by [brace expansion](http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html#Brace-Expansion), like so:

```
$ rm -rf abc.log.2012-03-{14,27,28}

```

The above would *expand to* a single command with all three arguments, and be equivalent to typing:

```
$ rm -rf abc.log.2012-03-14 abc.log.2012-03-27 abc.log.2012-03-28

```

It's important to note that this expansion is done by the shell, before `rm` is even loaded.
A wild card would work nicely for this, although to be safe it would be best to make the use of the wild card as minimal as possible, so something along the lines of this:

```
rm -rf abc.log.2012-*

```

Although from the looks of it, are those just single files? The recursive option should not be necessary if none of those items are directories, so best to not use that, just for safety.