CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashfind
monk
monk

Reputation: 2115

exclude multiple directories from find result

I need to exclude multiple directories from find result. I know how to do it by hard coding in the find command, but can it be possible to store the list of excluded dir as a variable or array and later used in find command ?

Here is my working command: In this command, I am touching a file called dumped inside all the directories in the current directories with maxdepth 1 except . , ./tmp , ./garbage directories. 

find . -maxdepth 1 ! -path "." ! -path "./tmp" ! -path "./garbage" -type d -exec touch {}/dumped  2>/dev/null \;

If you notice I have provided hard coding in the find command for the directories to be excluded.

If there any way to store the list in a variable and pass to the find command ?

something like exclude_list=".|./tmp|./garbage" and use it afterwards ?

I tried following but it did not worked:

find . -maxdepth 1 ! -path ${exclude_list}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 385

Answers (1)

glenn jackman
glenn jackman

Reputation: 246744

Untested: use an array

find_clauses=(
      -maxdepth 1 
    ! -path "." 
    ! -path "./tmp" 
    ! -path "./garbage" 
      -type d 
      -exec touch {}/dumped ';'
)
find . "${find_clauses[@]}" 2>/dev/null

If you want to put the excluded directories in a list, you can still build the find clauses dynamically:

exclude_dirs=( . ./tmp ./garbage )

find_clauses=( -maxdepth 1 )
for d in "${exclude_dirs[@]}"; do find_clauses+=( ! -path "$d" ); done
find_clauses+=( 
      -type d 
      -exec touch {}/dumped ';'
)

find . "${find_clauses[@]}" 2>/dev/null

Upvotes: 2

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