powershell - Delete all files and folders but exclude a subfolder

Question

I have a folder where I need to delete all files and folders except a small list of files and folders.

I can already exclude a list of files, but don't see a way to exclude a folder and its contents.

Here is the folder structure:

|-C:emp
 -C:empsomefile.txt
 -C:empsomeotherfile.txt
| |-C:empfoldertodelete
   -C:empfoldertodeletefile1.txt
| |-C:empfoldertokeep
|  -C:empfoldertokeepfile2.txt

I want to keep somefile.txt and the folder foldertokeep and its content.

This is what I have right now:

Get-ChildItem -Path  'C:emp' -Recurse -exclude somefile.txt | Remove-Item -force -recurse

This really does not delete somefile.txt. Is there a way to exclude folder foldertokeep and its content from the delete list?

Answer 1

Get-ChildItem -Path  'C:emp' -Recurse -exclude somefile.txt |
Select -ExpandProperty FullName |
Where {$_ -notlike 'C:empfoldertokeep*'} |
sort length -Descending |
Remove-Item -force 

The -recurse switch does not work properly on Remove-Item (it will try to delete folders before all the child items in the folder have been deleted). Sorting the fullnames in descending order by length insures than no folder is deleted before all the child items in the folder have been deleted.