mjhjmtu

I have a directory of files with similar names, but with incrementing digits as a suffix. I want to remove the lower suffixed files and only keep the files with the highest suffix. Below is an example file listing:

1k_02.txt
1k_03.txt
1l_02.txt
1l_03.txt
1l_04.txt
2a_05.txt
2a_06.txt
4c_03.txt
4c_04.txt

The above list needs to be reduced to the files below:

1k_03.txt
1l_04.txt
2a_06.txt
4c_04.txt

I don't even know where to start with this, but if possible I would like a single bash command.

Complex pipeline:

Files list:

$ ls
1l_04.txt 2a_05.txt 4c_03.txt 1k_03.txt 1l_02.txt 4c_04.txt 2a_06.txt 1l_03.txt 1k_02.txt

printf "%sn" * | sort -t'_' -k1,1 -k2nr | awk -F'_' 'a[$1]++' | xargs rm

Results:

$ printf "%sn" *
1k_03.txt
1l_04.txt
2a_06.txt
4c_04.txt

With zsh:

$ ls
1k_02.txt 1l_02.txt 1l_04.txt 2a_06.txt 4c_04.txt
1k_03.txt 1l_03.txt 2a_05.txt 4c_03.txt
$ (typeset -A seen; for f (*_*(nOn)) ((seen[$f%_*]++)) && rm -- $f)
$ ls
1k_03.txt 1l_04.txt 2a_06.txt 4c_04.txt